Remove Collections Off Your Credit Report

Credit Card Debt and Financial Woes in America

Analysts say Americans are not only relying on credit cards to pay their bill – there are also more people living from paycheck to paycheck with absolutely no savings tucked away for the future.

A report issued by Georgetown University also shows credit card debt and bankruptcy filings have skyrocketed revealing that consumers are “mired in credit card debt.”

Records show that credit cards not only have high interest rates, but they have extremely high back-end fees that are unrelated to costs, such as late fees and overlimit fees, plus a host of billing tricks and traps that function as hidden price points.

These “tricks and traps” generate more than $12 billion in revenue for the card industry, which is more than 30 percent of the industry’s pre-tax profits.

Dr. Adam J. Levitin, an associate professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, in Washington, D.C., said credit cards are, in many respects, an excellent product because they are an easy source of financing.

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“But, credit cards are also a product that can be misused by both consumers and card issuers. Consumers can use cards irresponsibly, and banks can issue cards and extend credit limits irresponsibly,” Levitin said to Congress in an effort to create better industry legislation.

“Unfortunately, credit card business models and product design encourage unsustainable and irresponsible lending that leaves consumers buried in debt and hurts responsible creditors like small businesses, landlords, tort victims, and the government.”

The credit card nightmare does not end there. The latest statistics from the Federal Reserve indicate the total amount of consumer debt in the United States stands at nearly $2.4 trillion.

Based on the 2010 Census statistics, that works out to be nearly $7,800 in debt for every man, woman and child that lives here in the U.S.

According to information collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, there were more than 173 million credit card holders in the United States in 2006. This number increased to some 181 million Americans.

These same Americans own approximately 1.5 billion cards, an average of nearly nine credit cards issued by credit card holder, according to the report of the Reserve.

Add the fact that there are a growing number of Americans unemployed and the country's economic difficulties have led to more defaults on payments by credit card and home equity loans.

Credit Report: What Is The Fastest Way To Remove A Collection From ...

1.) Pay it off and attain a receipt from the creditor. 2.) Submit a request online to Equifax at http://www.equifax.com to update the collection account to a status of “satisfied.” They will require documentation, which is what the receipt is for.

It will remain as a collection account on your report, but having it showed to be paid should help your score

Let me warn you of something.

If you were to pay off this bill, and IF the creditor notifies the credit bureau, your account is changed to “paid”. However, it will still show that you had late payments, or that the account was in collections. This is still a negative item on your report, and it will still hurt your score.

Does it make sense to pay off your bill and still have bad credit?

The problem is that the only way you can get a negative item removed is for the creditor to tell them to remove it. There is no other way (except to go through the dispute process and hope the creditor does not respond to the investigation).

What I advise people to do is negotiate with the creditor. Tell them that in exchange for paying off the bill, they must agree IN WRITING to remove all negative information from your credit report.

See the link below for more info.

Purchase the book “Guaranteed Credit” by Arnold S. Goldstein and refer to sample letter 21a “Creditor Settlement Agreement”

FIRST ..DO NOT LISTEN to most of these people who haven’t a clue! If you pay it will STILL be on your report for 7 years. Contact the collection Agency by letter (NO PHONE CONTACT) offer to pay 25% of the bill if THEY delete it from a 3 credit reporting company, eq, es, tu. Get it in WRITING before you give then one cent. Chances are they have bought the debt for pennies on the dollar..so know that up front…tehy might have only a few dollars in your account…they buy them in bulk. NEVER admit the debt is yours…always call it the alledged debt. If they won’t play ball send all 3 CRA’a a letter asking for proof that the debt is your..BY LAW they must give you PROOF..that’s what the FCRA say’s.

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