How to Cope with Collectors and Come Out Ahead

by IAN WEBBER

Finance & Investment,Investment,Self Improvement

Controlling Collection Problems Collectors can be aggressive. There are those who do their job in an ethical and professional manner, but many in the collection industry are trained emotional terrorists who prey on consumer’s ignorance. You don’t have to be intimidated; there are many credit repair techniques that can help. In fact, if you take some time to understand your legal rights you may find that you can gain the upper hand and even profit from the situation. Debt Validation No one likes to get a collection letter, but it represents a credit repair opportunity. If you send a written response to the collector within thirty days of getting a collection letter you have the right to ask for proof of their legal right to collect the debt, as well as an accounting of the amount they claim is due. If they cannot provide the documentation they must cease collection efforts. This serves several valuable purposes. It will validate the legitimacy of the debt, eliminate expired and undocumented collections, and if the collection is valid you will have an accounting of the dollar amount owed. Cease Communication Letters If you wish to put an end to a collector’s phone calls you can send them a Cease Communication letter. Once they receive your letter they must stop contacting you, except to acknowledge receipt of your letter or to inform you that they are pursuing a legal remedy. This credit repair tactic should be used with care as many collectors respond by immediately sending the account to their legal department to evaluate other options like suing you. The Attorney Solution If you do not feel capable of handling collectors you should consult an attorney. Once you have an attorney who is willing to manage your collection issues you can quickly deflate all controlling collector communications. Once you inform a collector that you have an attorney they must ask you for the attorney’s contact information and stop contacting you. This credit repair strategy stops most manipulative collectors in their tracks as they simply won’t dare step over legal lines when dealing with an attorney. Many collectors will simply abandon their effort entirely.

Check Your Statute of Limitation

If a collection account has passed the statute of limitation (SOL) for collection through the court system collectors have no legal leverage. Over fifty percent of active collections are beyond the SOL. Research the SOL for every collection. If you are contacted by a collector about a collection that is beyond the SOL you can use a cease communication letter with no fear. If they sue you, you will have to appear in court to use your SOL defense, but you will prevail. It is important to note that the SOL clock starts with the original default date on the original collection, not the date that the collector reports the debt to the credit bureaus; SOLs have no bearing on reporting period limits and are almost always considerably shorter.

Credit Repair and Reporting Cures

It is vital to your credit repair effort to know that collectors buy and sell debt frequently. When a collector sells an account to another collector or sends it back to the original creditor they are supposed to withdraw the account from your credit report; this rarely happens. Collectors often let accounts continue to report after the account is sold. Examine your credit report carefully and challenge all questionable collections.

Professional Credit Repair Can Help

If you find yourself lost in the details and don’t have the time to manage credit issues as carefully as you should just contact a credit repair professional. A professional credit repair service will dispute questionable collections that appear on your credit report, research all statutes of limitation, validate the debt on any active collections, and help you understand your options on any collections that are determined to be valid. Good luck!

Copyright © 2009 Ian Webber. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Ian Webber is an expert in consumer law and credit repair. Ian is a graduate of the London School of Economics and The University of Chicago where he earned his LLM. Ian consults with one of the leading online credit repair services and is currently based in Florida.

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