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In my experience it is possible to remove collections from your credit report. A collection entry on your credit report, including medical collections, can severely lower your credit score and in many cases prevent you from obtaining a mortgage or auto loan.
How Long Does a Collection Stay on Credit Report?
Debt collections with remain on your credit report for seven years if you don’t do anything to get it removed from your credit report. I recommend that you attempt to remove all collections before you apply for any loans, including auto and mortgages. Not only will collections affect your ability to get loans, but it will also likely increase your interest rates.
How I Remove Collections From My Credit Report
When I was in college I got a cellphone with Sprint. The phone service didn’t work well so I switched to Verizon but forgot that I owed Sprint a payment. Long story short, it ended up going to Sprint collections and showing up on my credit report. I went ahead and paid the collection because I thought that would also remove it from my credit report. However, it wasn’t removed, it was just changed to “paid collection”. I followed these steps to get it removed.
1. Request a Goodwill Adjustment from the collection agency
To remove a collection, you should start by writing what’s called a goodwill letter to the original creditor. This is basically a letter that explains your situation, such as you want to purchase a house but can’t because of the collection on your credit report, and you’re kindly asking that they remove the collection out of goodwill. I know this sounds like a long shot, but it works surprisingly well. The best way to write an effective goodwill letter is to use my sample goodwill letter template.
2. Dispute the Collection
If the goodwill letter fails to get the debt collection removed from your credit report, the next thing you should do is check to see if there is any inaccurate information on the collection entry. If you find any information that’s incorrect, you can dispute the entry with the credit bureaus.
Once you file a dispute, the credit bureaus will have 30 days to verify that the information they have is correct.
The truth is, many times collection agencies have incorrect records and are therefore unable to provide the credit bureaus with accurate information. This will result in the entry being corrected or removed from your credit report.
3. Demand That the Collection Agency Validate the Debt
If you’re unable to find any inaccuracies on the collection entry on your credit report, next you should write the collection agency and demand that they validate the debt. Under section 809 of The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collection agencies are required to validate debts they are attempting to collect if you request that they do so.
The rub here is that you only have 30 days to make the request after their initial contact. If they are unable to validate the debt, you can ask them to remove it from your credit report.
4. Have a Professional Remove Collections
Lastly, if you’re the type of person who would rather have a professional handle it and just be done with the whole thing, I suggest you check out Lexington Law Credit Repair. They’ll take care of you, and honestly they usually get stuff removed a lot quicker. Give them a call at 1-833-333-2439 or Check out their website.
Hi, my name is Sabrina. I’m from Wisconsin. I became a home owner in October 2014, prior to October 2014 my fiance and I rented a townhouse. When we vacated the rental, we left a forwarding address with the building manager and had given it to the landlord as well. Along with this landlord already had both our phone numbers; and we also put a change of address in with the Post Office, which is still forwarding mail to us to this present date. My point of all this is, The landlord told us it wasn’t clean enough when we left and was going to be sending us an itemized bill. We waited and never received nothing. March 7th 2015 rolled around, and we received mail from Mutual Management, A collection agency for a large bill. So, I sent a debt validation letter to the collection agency. Now, in June 2015 I obtained a copy of my credit reports, and There is a collections account reported on my credit. How is this possible? The landlord never gave us an amount to pay and went straight to placing into collections after 5 months. HOW do I get this removed from my credit? I was told by lawyer that she was required to bill us/send us bill within 30 days; which she never did. Now my credit score dropped 60 points, after I’ve been working this long to keep my credit in good standing.
I’d dispute it with the credit bureaus
Just type a letter saying that the account was satisfied and sign it in the old landlords name! Fax it to the credit reporting agencies and they will remove it. Just like that! The landlord won’t know plus nobody will check to see if anything is paid anyway! Solo many people are doing this! It absolutely works like a charm! Evictions too! Works every single time!! Good luck!
do you have a example of what i should write on the letter. im horrible when it comes to this type of thing
Hi Sabrina, I’m in the exact same situation, I’m from Wisconsin too. Did find a way to work it out? BTW, my property company is Katz Properties, I never received a bill and then suddenly get the mail from a collection agency.
I am trying to move to Cleveland ohio and i am in bankruptcy and steadily finding stuff on my credit how is that possible i only want to rent a single family home what shou
I applied for a 13 with my ex in 2009. We converted to a chapter 7 in 2010. My ex got a discharge in 2011. I got a dismissal because of the date. The 7 date was 2009—not 2010 when we converted. That was too close to my last chapter 7 in 2002. Our lawyer should have stopped the 13 and filed a new chapter 7 with a new filing date.
Now I am trying to buy a home. My score is 10 points from 620/traditional. I see the credit agencies put discharge, not dismissal on my reports. Do I tell them to fix it? Will this kill my score and my chance of a home loan?
So I disputed a collection a few weeks ago and now it has been removed from my credit report when will it show back up?
What makes you think it will show back up? It probably won’t.
Hi,
I am trying to clean up my credit report and have some small medical bills that have gone to collections over the course of a few years. Do I try and get the original drs to remove or it’s up to the collections agency at this point? if I paid a collection on a cell phone is there any chance they will remove after the fact?
Thanks for your help!
If you’ve already paid it over the phone, you probably won’t be able to get it removed. It’s always best to pay the debt only after the collection agency has agreed to remove it from your credit report in exchange.
If they agreed to remove it after payment over the phone and did not. How do I dispute it?
Hi Ryan, I recently just paid 2 unemployment over payment liens, and recently received the Notice of satisfaction from the state. What are the steps on requesting the lien’s to be removed from my credit? Thanks
About 3 years ago I paid all my credit cards off to buy a home. Now I have enough money saved for the down payment. The mortgage broker told me that there was a collection from a debit collection Co. For Walmart card which was one the credit cards that I paid in full. The funny part is that when paid it off the bill was under $2000.00 now it’s on my report for over $5000.00. So this is bring down my score. I understand there are fees and intrest but thats more than double in 2 years. Another thing this hasn’t been on my report until I stated looking for a mortgage. How can I get this fixed. I just want to take them to court. What form or forms would I need to start the process?
I have a Sprint bill that has been sent to collections and is now showing on my credit report (dropped my credit score significantly.) It started when I switched from sprint to another carrier-this broke the contract and they sent me a “final” bill. I never received notification that the bill was going to collections. I have doubled and triple checked to be sure that I did not miss a piece of mail somewhere along the way. This is all fairly recent as the final bill was sent no more than 2.5 months ago. Long story short, I was denied an auto loan due to this and I really need to get this off my credit report. Step by step what should I do? Good will letter first to the collection agency, and then a pay for deletion if that does not work? I am willing to pay, just need some guidance on the best sequence of action. Thanks!!
Rachel, did you have any luck with resolving this issue? I have an almost exact scenario and am curious if it worked out. Thanks.
Same thing happened to me. I never signed or agreed to any contract when I got Sprint service. The store manager said they had an employee sign peoples names to their agreement to the exorbitant early termination fees. Now they sent it to collections, the agency won’t validate it or show me where I agreed to pay the amount they are billing for… I want to know what to do now…
Contact the collection company and see if they agree on a pay off settlement. make sure they agree to remove it from your credit report upon payment. It usually takes 30 days for them to remove it.
I have several things on my credit, a few medical, 2 credit cards and a car loan that had to go back do to going into the hospital. I want to pay what I can off which would be 3 or 4 out of 7. Should I use a professional to take care of what I can? If they are removed will my credit get boosted ?
Yes, that’s one option. Your credit score would go up if negative items are removed.
hi i have a late payment sprint bill so im in collection some one have the number or where i can call for pay the pill?
877-220-3565
My husband has a few things on his reports. They are loans we had when we were stationed overseas. He was medically discharged but the items went into collections because we were unable to pay them anymore. Is there any way to get these removed? He had perfect credit until this happened. We would like to buy a house and are back on our feet but his score is keeping us from obtaining his VA loan. What would you suggest?
Hi CR Smith,
Why did the VA not cover your husbands medical bills if he was medically discharged? Have you contacted the VA about this? If he is still entitled to VA benefits, those bills should’ve been paid….by THEM.
Hi Ryan,
We are currently in the same exact situation with Sprint and are in the process of buying a home, we need this issue resolved like yesterday, how long did it take for Spring to remove the collection?
Can I get a emergency bill removed from my credit report from aug 1 2010?
Yeah, if you follow the steps I outlined
I am in a similar situation as you but my was with comcast. I paid the collection without an agreement and bam credit down 60 points. I am just wondering which of your methods actually worked in your situation. I am starting with the goodwill letter.
PS
I was wondering have anyone ever tried to negotiate with the collection agency a second time for removal?
Hi I’ve had a charged off account on my credit report & it have been marked as derogatory what can I do to get it removed from my credit report?
Ryan, I need your advice. I have very very poor credit. I am 55 years old and have had bad credit for decades now. And I do notice even my “write offs” still are on my credit report. How can I get the creditors to drop my old charges that I would never be able to pay? How can I get the negatives and judgements off my credit report so that I can up my score and not have the stress in these later years of my life? I just have very poor credit and lots of judgements and negatives and would like to make them disappear but how do I even start to do this????
Hi. I recently paid off a collection. I have a pay for deletion letter from the collection agency. It’s been over 30 days. How long does it take to come off my report? Also, another collection agency refused my pay for deletion offer and said they can only update my status as paid. What can I do?
Hi Jessica,
I currently have the same exact issue… I was wondering how did you resolve your situation?
Thanks for any advice.
I paid off a 2nd mortgage 6 years ago through a short sale house was in CA and just found out the original bank/credit union was sold and they have sold the info to a collection company for a loan they accepted a short payoff on I sent the collection co the final closing statement and they said they will work with the back to make sure it was paid so it can be removed from my credit report if they don’t how can I get it removed cause it was paid in a short sale.
I keep paying off debts that are on my credit report then 6 months later that same paid debt shows up after another debt collector buys it. It’s all a giant scam the credit reporting companies are loyal to the debt collectors and business because that’s how they make money. They say you can dispute it which is another scam all the reporting agency does is ask the debt collector who is usually a criminal if it is valid and if the collector replies yes with 30 days we’ll that’s good enough. Why can a company put information about you that harms you without a shred of evidence. Most people think if they dispute the debt that the collector must provide proof i.e. A signed agreement or something they don’t have to provide anything. Then they say take them to court. That’s crazy like people are going to spend thousands of dollars to remove a account that’s one or two hundred. It should be illegal to put negative information about anyone without evidence. Let’s face it it’s a crooked system. Run by crooks. There are people in jail who have done much less to hurt people but it’s a rigged system bought and sold by white collar criminals.
Ryan
Is there anyway I can get inquires removed from my credit report. There is like 47 of them and maybe 10 are soft. I run a business…LLC AND THESE PEOPLE TAKE A LIBERTY AT CHECKING MY CREDIT OFTEN. NOT WITH MY PERMISSION. Can I demand the credit reporting agencies to remove them if I did not request? Let me know.
Thanks. Ronnie
Sorry to hear that. It can be difficult to get inquires removed from your credit report. Your best bet is to dispute them with the credit bureaus.
Ryan,
I just got a recent collections for an older cell phone bill that I thought was paid off by the new carrier when we switched to them. Can I call the old carrier, pay then directly, then dispute the collection by demanding the agency validate the debt? I assume when they validate it, if I have paid it off directly with the old carrier, the debt won’t be valid and have to be removed from my report?
Hi. Did you have any resolution with this? Similar situation and curious if anything worked. Thanks.
Hello, im having serious issues with my credit score. Its being affected by a old liability that i only had for less than 1year. I bought from a private owner my first vehicle and register it under my name shortly after i was contacted by an investigator and was told this item was sold illegally to me and perhaps never be mine. Years have passed an a towing company for is charging fees which i believe is for this car. All this time i had believed the investigation was close and car taken but it seems like that didnt happen. Dmv doesnt have record of me having this car. I do not have anything regarding this car and the investigation department in my city was unable to pull out the record either. How can i fix this. Need advise asap ????????????????
Once you pay off an account that was in collections how long do you have to wait until you try to dispute it?
You can try to dispute it right away if you want.
Hi
Last year one of my credit card changed their bank . I did not know they did. I did not recieve any letter or anything. I had auto pay set up for old account. 3 months later i recieved the statemwnt with interest on the amount. I called them n they told me no auto payment now on. So i paid it that time. Now i see a late patment on my account. Thats the only 1. I would never late any of my payment if I knew they have changed bank n auto pay is not in place. It was a childrens place card
I have 3 reports on my credit score that I’m planning on paying off in full, within the next 2 months. However, I’ve been hearing so many different responses about paying them all off, may do no good and potentially reopen another 7 years. 2 of my reports have 3 years to come off and the other has 4, would it be better if I left them to come off, once expired or paying them off, could indeed bring my credit score back up and remove them from my credit report sooner?
Hi there, I had a collection from AT&T on my credit report for $1,100 which is completely inaccurate, they were charging me for every line that I’ve ever had since I’ve been with them. I disputed it with TransUnion. I won the dispute & they sold the collection to another company and now it’s on my credit report again how do I get this off permanently?
Write a letter to the collection agency and demand that they validate that they debt is yours.
What do you do if there is no validation of debt or they do not respond and then another company also is asking for the same money? This is just a vicious cycle. Then the next month they add it back etc. I think people want to know how do we get the credit agencies to permanently remove these things and not allow them back. Some of these debts go from debt agency to debt agency for years and years. I have one item which is not even mine for 14 years going around my report from one collection company to the next to the next. I have one debt listed 5 times on my report by different agencies. How do we stop this?
Hello,
What is the best way that you know of to have a charge-off removed? Deal with the Collection agency or the Original creditor? Thank you in advance
Hey Kristin, check out my article on how to get a charge off removed – https://bettercreditblog.org/remove-charge-off-credit-report/
My question is what do you do you when two separate collection agency are trying to collect a debt with each one reporting to separate credit bureaus. … I have never received anything in the mail from either one
I’d write a letter to each collection agency and demand that they validate the debt.
Hello, In reviewing my credit score there are a number of items in collections Active status. The problem I have with this is I have never been to the places that have sent me to the collections agency listed on my report. The agency is the same for all 5 items. I did a dispute with Experian but this didn’t get my anywhere. I don’t want to have to pay for someone else getting ahold o my information and for bills that aren’t mine. The total of what is in collections is almost $1,000. worth of bills I didn’t make.
Any help would be appreciated.
Karen M
I too have a collection on my credit report from Sprint. This is totally inaccurate as I did not break a contract with them and I have called them to dispute to no avail. I also explained that if I did indeed owe a large fee why would they allow my phone number be ported over to the new carrier who in fact was their sister company Virgin Mobile..what can I do I want it removed asap…!!!!
I have old medical bills on my credit report but they have no account numbers and other information that I don’t know. How do I dispute them. My fiancee has stuff on his credit report from 1984 but we can’t get them removed. What can we do to stop this.
I have a question regarding medical debt. First of all 2010 was a bad year I lost my job after I had a medical crisis that left me hospitalized for 3 weeks. My husband at the time thought that was a good time to file for divorce so he cleared out our joint account and had papers served. The judge then awarded him with everything. The cars, our house, hell, he tried to make me give my ex the furniture my grandfather have given me. My exs lawyer had to tell the judge that that was legally my personal property. Meanwhile since my health continued to fail I ended up moving in my my mother. I applied for disability and was told I had a wait period of two years, I continued to go to the doctors without insurance. I applied for Medicaid being told that they take care of back debt once approved. I lived for two years with 12 dollars in my bank account. Needless to say I was never approved for Medicaid, so now I owe 15,000 in Medical debt that’s in collection that I can’t pay. My Ssd is less then that a year. I contacted one hospital with the biggest bill and was told that they actually did have income based repayment. But I had to make the deadline. I failed to do that the first time because I didn’t have all my paperwork (the government takes there own time) the second because I was again hospitalized. Now they are telling me in order for me to be able to reapply I have to refresh the account by going to there ER. I can’t do this because it’s a different state. Should I just let it drop off my credit and forget about it. It not like I am suddenly going want to buy a house and bought my used in cash. I can currently afford my rent and food but not much else.
Hi DeeDee, does it work with collection account?? Thank you!
I paid off my hospital bills from the collection agency that the hospital sent me to and the collection refuse to remove from credit. I am trying to get a house. I have call the collection agency and they said that they don’t remove it, so what do i do. It paid off and i want this collection remove.
I have Been watching my credit trying to get it cleaned up and in Aug something was dropped from collections from a cable company that was from about 5-6 yrs ago my score has raised almost 45 points since Aug. I was checking it today thinking it would jump up again because I knew everything has been current for the last 6 months and doing really well keeping things current I checked it today and it has dropped so low I am In the poor again almost starting over again everything else is good and current and has been for months. And all of a sudden a new collections company has taken over this account. This is the only thing that is different from my report 15 days ago… I don’t even remember the day this originally went to collections with this cable company! I’m afraid to dispute it I have heard if I fight It then the 7 yrs starts over ? If I cant Remember when it was then I dont Have a clue the account number or anything. I am Needing to get a new car loan and at this point will have no way of getting a loan with this just hitting my credit
I have a couple collection accounts that I want to get removed. Should I try a pay for delete or goodwill letter for them. I was going through a divorce and lost track of certain bills/paper work. Also, I have completed a student loan rehabilitation on my six student loans that went into default. I have since been making on time payments with the new provider but the old loans still remain as closed/transferred with the negative payment history on them. Shouldn’t they be deleted since the same loans are now with a new loan provider? It is essentially duplicated reporting them, right? I am planning on getting married in a couple years and want to buy a house with my current boyfriend and with this stuff on my report I fear I won’t be able to do this. Thank you for your help.
I have to accounts showing in collections on my credit report. Both are paid. So I am too late to request a “pay to delete”. I called the collection agency and they stated that they do not delete. DO I have any other options at this point?
Back in December 2017 I sent verification letters to 4 different collection agencies asking to verify my accounts. (All medical bills) Three collection companies verified within 30 days…….. One collection company responded in February 2018, stating that the account has been closed with their agency . And if the account has been reported to a credit reporting agency, they will submit a request for the to account to be deleted…Should I contact TU & Equifax ?
Hi i have a question, I have two thing unpaid on my credit report I am trying to fix before i establish a loan for a morgage. I am trying ro figure out the best way to go about paying and having them removed one is sprint sent out to a collector and one is National grid. I PAID IN FULL AMAZON TO COLLECTOR PORTFOLIO. THEN STARTED LOOKING INTO THINGS AND WAS UNSURE IF I MADE THE RIGHT DECISION AS TO NOW IT MAY NOT BE DELETED OFF MY CREDIT SCORE. Question is now the next step.
Hi- I am at my witts end. I have numerous collections on my account, most for companies that I never did business with. There are also several different collection agencies updating monthly for the same debt on all 3 agencies reports and this is killing my score (below 500). I worked very hard over the years to establish good credit and then BAM this started. I defaulted on 1 loan after I became sick but since paid it and that is it. I have tried NUMEROUS times to dispute these items on my credit report and a few times they were removed but popped back up the next month but most I just get a response from the credit agency that the debt has been verified. How could this be possible when I never even got a letter from any of those collection agencies to begin with? I wrote to most of them, never hearing back. What can I do? I am unable to get a loan or credit card or anything and I pay everything on time. How do i get these things off my report and stop them from popping up each month? Why is it so easy for a company to report bogus stuff but impossible for us to get it removed? This is destroying our life and preventing us from purchasing our first home. We are not kids but 40 something adults who are at a loss and devastated with what these companies are doing to our lives. HELP PLEASE!
Hello, so in 2016 my husband and i signed a contract to lease an apartment. Two months into the contract I went onto bed-rest from orders from my doctor for a medical condition. I was rendered unable to work and therefore we told the apartment complex that we would have to break our lease due to a medical reason. They proceeded to notify us that we would have to pay three months worth of rent to break the lease, of course with me being out of work due to a medical condition, we couldn’t pay the additional rent that they wanted. We did however satisfy the debt that we owed for the month that we were actually there. Is there a way for me to fight this and get it removed from my credit because of medical reasons, I can supply a copy of the doctors letter as well.
Hi there-
I just pulled my credit reports to review since I have ID Theft and I see that I have two collection accounts from what look like old medical bills. I’ve called both collection agencies and they will not supply me any information other than I owe the debt. One account looks to be 6 years old and another 3 years old (at least that’s what it looks like). Any idea how I can get these off my credit? Thank you in advance.
Hello. For the goodwill letter you stated we should write to the original creditor? My issue is also a late payment with Sprint, but they sold to a collection agency and I paid the collection agency. So, it is the collection agency that is listed on my credit report. Would I write to Sprint or the collection agency asking for goodwill?