Who do I need to talk to about paying off debt that’s on my credit report?
I have a lot of collections and old debt on my credit report and I have know I idea who or where to start paying. I need someone who can take my credit report and comb through it giving me a plan of action to tackle all of this debt. I know there are debt counselors and consolidators, but do they handle collection accounts that are years old? I really need help ASAP.
You need to get a hold of a debt reduction specialist tht can guide you in accomplishing this. Then you have to follow some rules and guidelines so it won’t happen again. Try watching the Suze Orman show and empower yourself.
well, first of all you should run a credit report check through the three main credit collection agency. Experian,Equifax, and TransUnion. Those are the main three. You can call them and ask for a copy of your report, or you can look it up on line, and find out exactly what you have on file. But remember due to statue of limitation, anything older then 7 years, you DO NOT have to pay. Once you get a hold of your credit report, then you can decide what to pay. If you already did all that, then the same credit collection will take the payment, and will also notify the other company that payment has been recieved and posted. It will take atleast 6 to 7 years to clear off your credit, even if paid in full. Standard procedure. Simply make sure they send you a copy and save all reciepts. That will be your proof incase you are planning to buy a new car or house. Hope I answered your question.
I’m assuming ou have a current copy of your credit report. It should give you addresses and usually phone numbers for these places. Assuming they are legitimate debts, contact them and offer a reasonable payment if they will promise to issue a deletion letter. Make them promise “If you pay $X, we will issue a deletion letter” in writing before you pay. Once you have a letter stating that if you pay $X, they will issue a deletion letter, then pay them the $X. Send them a copy of their promisory letter with your payment. Keep after them until they send you the letter of deletion (Must be on their letterhead, must have contact information for who in their company to contact with questions, must mention the account number, and must say, “Please delete this account:”). Once you have the deletion letter, forward copies to the three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax).
If you pay them off without following this procedure, it can cause your credit score to drop as much as 100 points per account. The reason is that it’s a derogatory account. You just pay it off, it gets marked current – and so now it has the effects of a brand new derogatory account, instead of the effects of something that happened years ago.
Now sometimes the same account has been sold through three or four collection agencies in addition to the original provider. That gets tricky.