Quick Results Reported!

I heard some good news from one of my book readers this week, and thought you’d like the encouragement.

He wrote: “I have recently started my credit repair journey. Using your first book, I have already gotten a collection account deleted from Experian. I have some more difficult accounts, so I am using your second book for those now.”

That’s GREAT news! Closed and paid collection accounts are easier to get deleted than open accounts. With open accounts, be careful and mindful of these three factors:

1. If the account is old and soon to age off your report, it’s probably best to leave it alone. The older it is, the less it impacts your score, anyway. If it is not past the date of the Statute of Limitations in your state, then don’t poke the sleeping giant. (There is an entire chapter on the Statute of Limitations with a state chart in the new book, Repair Your Credit Like the Pros DEEPER DIVE.)
   
2. If a collection has a large balance owing, make sure you have the funds to negotiate a 50% settlement before you touch it. If it’s “sleeping” you don’t want to wake up the creditor before you have money to negotiate with. On very large collections, sometimes you can get as low as 30%, but 50% is very good.
   
3. If a collection account has a large balance owing, they are more likely to file a lawsuit against you. Be aware of that before proceeding. If you are served papers, respond immediately and try to work out an agreement or payment plan that includes them deleting the account from your credit report when it has been fully paid. Keep a record of all your payments in a file, because you might need that later.

Credit repair can be a sprint, but some accounts are more like a marathon. Either way, you CAN repair and restore your credit and good name. Week-by-week, month-by-month, you pay on time and work on having anything that is reporting false, misleading, erroneous, outdated, or unverifiable removed.

Never give up! You are 100% worth the effort it takes.