From time to time, everyone forgets to pay a bill. You may have had autopay set up on a card that got hacked and had to be replaced, or you moved and forgot to update addresses with all of your creditors. Whatever the reason, you’ve now begun receiving calls from a collections agency. Be it Caine and Weiner or anyone else, they’re offering something called “Pay for Delete,” if you’ll just send them money.
Pay for Delete is just one of many different ways collections agencies try to get you to pay. But what if the debt they’re calling about isn’t yours? This is where seeking credit repair in Atlanta, Georgia can help stop the calls.
How Are Collections Affecting My Credit Report?
There are many factors involved in coming up with a credit report and, more importantly, your score. The three primary credit reporting bureaus in America are Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. By using proprietary formulas, each of these credit bureaus examines various elements, including current open accounts for credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans. With this information, they then assign you a credit score between 300 and 850.
Negative items are also factored into the credit bureau’s calculations. A negative item will appear anytime a payment has gone more than thirty days past due or an account has gone to collections.
How Does Pay For Delete Work?
Pay for Delete is a common tactic used by collection agencies. They’ll promise to delete their account from your credit report if you pay the agreed amount. The problem is, collections agencies are under no obligation to delete anything, unless you get it in writing.
The credit reporting bureaus have also become wise to these sorts of tricks, and are unlikely to delete most accounts without significant supporting evidence.
Furthermore, Pay for Delete is frowned upon in the world of credit reporting, as it misrepresents credit history. Typically, a debtor is supposed to pay a debt, and then the collections agency will mark the matter closed on the person’s credit report. By deleting the debt, they are essentially saying the debt never existed.
What if a collections agency is calling you for a debt that you don’t owe, and the collections account is wreaking havoc on your credit report? What can you do?
Credit Repair to the Rescue
Getting these items removed on your own is a daunting task. Imagine getting a bank to admit that you don’t actually owe them money—it takes a lot of back and forth with certified letters and evidence, and it can take weeks. This leads a lot of people to working with a credit repair company.
Credit repair companies are legitimate, and credit repair is legal in Georgia. A credit repair company’s job is to act as an intermediary to having inaccurate items removed from your credit report. Companies such as The Phenix Group know the ins and outs of the credit reporting industry, as well as the major financial players and collections agencies. We’ll work on your behalf by communicating with all the necessary parties to prove a debt isn’t yours or that payments marked as late were made on time.
We can also advise you on ways to improve your credit score without having to learn how Self Credit Builder works. Instead, we’ll show you how credit utilization and paying off certain loans early can be beneficial to your credit score.