I had a Rough Time Getting Approved for New Credit Because of a Bad Credit Mess in College. But I Was Able to Get My Charge Offs and Collection Accounts Removed!

My True Credit Repair Story:  With My Real Photo-Scanned Bad-Credit Deletion Letters and Credit Score Charts

Credit repair isn’t just about removing negative items. It’s also about building positive credit by adjusting your spending habits and developing a good record of responsible debt repayment.

In this article, I will share my true credit repair story with you. I’ll tell you how to accomplish both sides of the credit repair task ahead of you: delete negative items and build good credit.

My credit troubles began with a few maxed out credit cards. The interest got out of control, and eventually it got to the point where the card balance was so high I couldn’t even make the minimum payments each month. For a long time I’d been treading water financially, but now I was actually sinking.

Soon, the credit card companies got tired of dealing with me. They sold my accounts to collection agencies, and representatives from those agencies took over. They were extremely aggressive in their attempts to get me to pay off my debts.

A representative called my home literally every day, and I got tons of angry letters in the mail. It was frustrating, disheartening, and demoralizing. I hated being reminded of my financial mistakes every day. All I wanted to do was forget about the situation and move on.

Of course, that was impossible. Debt collectors are really invested in making you pay up. They work on commission, so they don’t get paid until you pay. Naturally, this means that they’re not about to just let an account go without trying every tactic at their disposal to secure repayment.

Their tactics normally begin with harassing phone calls, hoping that you will get so tired of talking to them every day that you will pay up just to make the harassment end. Then, they may move on to making repayment “deals” in which you are offered a low monthly payment. It may sound good, but read the fine print and you will discover that the interest and fees are exorbitant and the monthly payments go on for years.

If your debt collector is particularly unscrupulous, they may also make threats against you. For example, they may threaten to garnish your wages if you don’t pay up. It’s important to realize that threats of this nature are often groundless and ILLEGAL. Unless the debt collector has a real intention of filing the necessary court case and a real chance of winning that case, they can’t make threats of legal action against you..

For a while I tried my hardest to ignore the entire messy situation. I kept my phone turned off most of the time, and I stopped reading my mail. I was actually pretty successful, at least until I started thinking about buying a house.

I decided to get a copy of my credit report from TransUnion, so that I could see what kind of financing I might be able to get for a new house. When I saw my score, my heart dropped. I knew I’d had some credit problems, but I’d never dreamed my score could be so low! No way was I getting financing with a score like that.

Here is a picture of my TransUnion Credit Score With My Charge Offs and Debts Still On it!

As I reviewed my credit history to see what the problem was, I came across a couple of “charge offs”. I learned that these black marks had appeared on my record due to my unpaid credit card bills. Another favorite tactic of debt collectors is to report your unpaid debts to the credit bureaus as charge offs or collection items. This can be very damaging–each charge off can lower your credit score by up to 100 points.

When you see a charge off on your credit report, it’s important to realize that you have options for dealing with it. Repaying the debt is a valid option. If you choose repayment, be aware that paying the debt will not automatically remove the charge off. In order to remove the charge off, the credit bureau must be petitioned with new information. So if you do decide to pay, make sure you get proof in writing that the debt collector has agreed to have your charge off removed afterwards.

Another way to get a charge off removed is to use a credit repair letter, which is basically a form letter that you can fill in with your personal information. It’s important to note that this letter is best suited for debts that are inaccurate or unverifiable. If you choose to send this letter, be sure you use certified mail or a delivery confirmation service, so you can prove that it was received.

Perhaps the best way to get a charge off removed and your credit repaired is to hire a professional. This is what I chose to do. I found a credit repair law firm called Lexington Law that has an awesome track record of helping people just like me. In one year, they removed over 1 million negative items from their clients’ credit reports across all three credit bureaus.

Lexington Law Firm Can Remove Your Charge Offs and Collections Accounts - The Same Way They Did for Me

I called Lexington Law for a free consultation. As I went over the details of my situation with the Lexington Law representative, I immediately started to feel better. I no longer felt like my credit was totally out of control and poised to ruin my whole life. Instead, I felt hopeful that with help from Lexington Law, I could repair my credit and get the financing I needed.

There are several tactics that a credit repair law firm can use when disputing a charge off or collection item:

-Debt validation. You have a right to initiate debt validation within 30 days of being contacted by a debt collector. The debt validation process forces the debt collector to PROVE that you owe what they say you do. If they can’t, the debt is canceled.

-Statute of limitations. Every state has different laws about how many years a debt can remain active. If your debt is too old, and you haven’t paid on it in years, it’s possible that the statute of limitations on it has expired, making it illegal for anyone to try to collect on it.

-Fair Credit Reporting Act. According to this law, it is illegal for debt collectors to report inaccurate information about you to the credit bureaus. So if you can prove that a charge off or collection item was reported wrongly, you can easily get it removed.

-Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This law protects consumers from some of the nastier debt collection tactics. Under this law, debt collectors are not allowed to call you simply to harass you. They are also forbidden to make baseless threats of legal action like wage garnishment, asset seizure, liens, or arrest.

Within 30 days of Lexington Law accepting my case, I received a notice in the mail from TransUnion proving that Lexington Law had successfully deleted my charge offs! My credit score went up 109 points as a result. I could hardly believe it.

Lexington Deleted my charged Off Debts - My Score Started to Rise Every Month!

I felt like I’d been given a second chance in my financial life. Now I am careful to take good care of my credit by following these easy steps for building and maintaining good credit:

-Don’t carry too much debt. Experts recommend that you charge no more than 35 percent of your credit card’s limit each month.

-Pay your bills in full and on time. Your payment activity is reported to the credit bureaus every month, so even one mistake can hurt.

-Don’t apply for too many credit cards. Each time you do so, a “hard” credit inquiry goes on your credit history. When lenders see too many of these, it makes them suspicious that you may be overextending yourself.

-Keep old accounts open. Even if you’re no longer using your old credit cards, keep them open so that you will have a nice long credit history on file.

After My Charge Offs Were Deleted My credit score Went Up Fast!

Thanks to Lexington Law’s removal of my charge offs, plus my own decision to stick to the principles of good credit management, today I am a homeowner!

You too can achieve awesome results like this if you follow the simple steps to repairing and maintaining your credit that I’ve outlined here. Remember, hiring a professional service like Lexington Law is an investment in your future, and you are worth it!

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