Five Collection Methods - Remove Negative Listings from Credit Report

Five Methods of Dealing With Collections on Your Credit Report

Last Updated: October 17, 2011

Don't be afraid of collections on your credit report or having to deal with the collection agencies. If you have recently pulled your credit report only to find some of your deliquent accounts have been sold to a collection company, fear not! In actuality, collections are the easiest things to get off your credit report. Why? Because generally, collection agencies have poor documentation and they are not actually authorized or licensed to collect on the debt. As a result of the shaky status of collection accounts, there are many techniques you can use to attack the collection agency and eventually get that collection record off your credit report. Here are the top 5 techniques we recommend.

Pay for the Delete
Settle the Debt
Debt Validation
Dispute with the Original Creditor
Dispute with the Credit Bureaus

Pay for the Delete

This situation is best for small collection amounts, $500 or less, like medical collections or utility bills. You get the collection agency to agree to remove the listing from your credit report if you pay the debt amount. This is a very successful technique. To read up on the expanded version of this technique, read the pay for delete method here. Back to Top

Settle the Debt

This technique is much like the pay for delete method, except this method deals with collection amounts that are over $1,000. This method involves more negotiating with the collections agency to reduce the amount of the debt to an amount that you will be able to pay in one lump sum. Like the pay for delete method, as part of the settlement agreement, you get the collection agency to agree to remove the listing from your credit report. To read up on the expanded version of this technique, read the settling your debts method here. Back to Top

Debt Validation

This method involves leveraging the protections of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to force the collection agency to provide documentation that the debt is valid. It's one of the more aggressive techniques against the collection agency. It involves writing a letter to the collection agency, but if the collection agency is non responsive, it requires the threat of filing a lawsuit. To get more information on this technique, read the debt validation method here. Back to Top

623 Dispute with the Original Creditor

This method involves leveraging the protections of section 623 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act which allows consumers to dispute a negative listing directly with the company reporting it on your credit report. The consumer merely requests an investigation of the account, and is required by law to respond within 30 days. In order to use this technique, you must have first disputed the negative information on your credit report with the credit bureaus. This is actually a very effective technique, especially since the collection agencies will not have any documentation to back up their reporting. To read up on the expanded version of this technique, read the disputing listing with original creditor method here. Back to Top

Dispute with the Credit Bureaus

This method is the basic credit repair technique of writing letters to the credit bureaus to request an investigation of a collection on your credit report. It's basic credit repair 101. To read up on the expanded version of this technique, read the credit repair method here. Back to Top