Is It Possible to Clean Collection Accounts from My Credit Report?
http://completearticles.com/articles/107904/1/Is-It-Possible-to-Clean-Collection-Accounts-from-My-Credit-Report/Page1.html
Stuart Hunter
Providing credit repair services since 1991, Lexington Law has helped over 500,000 clients legally take on their credit. Last year alone, Lexington Law helped clients remove over 600,000 negative items from their credit reports. By Stuart Hunter
Published on 11/30/2009
Collection accounts can take a serious toll on your credit rating, with higher collection amounts taking a large toll than smaller amounts. If you are looking to improve your credit score, it is worth it to look into the things you can do in an attempt to delete collections from your credit reports.
Is It Possible to Delete Collection Accounts from Your Credit Reports?
Depending on how much a credit claims you owe, even a single collections on your credit reports can do some serious damage to your credit score.
Collections accounts for smaller dollar amounts don't weigh down your credit score as much, but if you have multiple delinquencies on your credit reports, don't be surprised when your credit isn't as good as you would prefer it to be.
Whether a collections is reported for $100, $500, $1,000 or more, your credit would likely be higher if it didn't appear on your credit reports. Just about everyone would prefer to have this damaging credit listing erased, but few realize there is something they can do about it. What they are not aware of is that there are steps you can take in an effort to delete collection accounts from your credit reports. In fact, Lexington Law, a consumer advocacy law firm with 18 years of experience helping over 1/2 million Americans work to improve their credit, reports that their clients had over 250,000 collections removed from their credit reports in 2008.
You have a number of options when it comes to repairing your credit. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you can dispute with the credit bureaus any items in your credit reports you feel may be inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or unclear (known as "questionable" items). Essentially, as the name of the act implies, you have the right to question any items in your credit reports you feel give lenders, employers, and others an unfair impression of your credit worthiness; including collection accounts.
If your credit bureau dispute is unsuccessful or if the reported collections account doesn't fit the definition of a questionable negative item, there are still options available to you. Your creditors and collections agencies have the ability to remove the items they have added to your credit reports. Sometimes, simply as a result of you asking nicely, they will agree to stop reporting a negative item. If a friendly request fails to produce results, there are more confrontational steps you can take that make use of your rights under consumer protection statutes such as the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
It isn't necessarily easy, but with time, effort, and proper knowledge, you may be able to remove collection accounts from your credit reports. Of course, if you do not have the time or the desire to attempt repairing your own credit, there are a number of reputable credit repair companies who will make use of their experience to aid you in working towards achieving your credit goals.
Collections accounts for smaller dollar amounts don't weigh down your credit score as much, but if you have multiple delinquencies on your credit reports, don't be surprised when your credit isn't as good as you would prefer it to be.
Whether a collections is reported for $100, $500, $1,000 or more, your credit would likely be higher if it didn't appear on your credit reports. Just about everyone would prefer to have this damaging credit listing erased, but few realize there is something they can do about it. What they are not aware of is that there are steps you can take in an effort to delete collection accounts from your credit reports. In fact, Lexington Law, a consumer advocacy law firm with 18 years of experience helping over 1/2 million Americans work to improve their credit, reports that their clients had over 250,000 collections removed from their credit reports in 2008.
You have a number of options when it comes to repairing your credit. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you can dispute with the credit bureaus any items in your credit reports you feel may be inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or unclear (known as "questionable" items). Essentially, as the name of the act implies, you have the right to question any items in your credit reports you feel give lenders, employers, and others an unfair impression of your credit worthiness; including collection accounts.
If your credit bureau dispute is unsuccessful or if the reported collections account doesn't fit the definition of a questionable negative item, there are still options available to you. Your creditors and collections agencies have the ability to remove the items they have added to your credit reports. Sometimes, simply as a result of you asking nicely, they will agree to stop reporting a negative item. If a friendly request fails to produce results, there are more confrontational steps you can take that make use of your rights under consumer protection statutes such as the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
It isn't necessarily easy, but with time, effort, and proper knowledge, you may be able to remove collection accounts from your credit reports. Of course, if you do not have the time or the desire to attempt repairing your own credit, there are a number of reputable credit repair companies who will make use of their experience to aid you in working towards achieving your credit goals.