How Do I Fight Collections?

When it comes to protecting credit, consumers have rights under the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). One right is each individual consumer, like you, is allowed to have access to your credit report from credit reporting agencies now. In addition, you as a consumer, have the right to purchase your credit scores. There are 30 day free trial memberships which include several important benefits such as:
unlimited number of credit reports during the membership;
free FICO score;
free triple bureau report;
free score power report from one of the CRA agencies in particular.

A third right is called debt validation which is a process between a consumer and a creditor (like a collection agency). If you receive a phone call or bill from a collection agency you should follow these instructions carefully to the letter in order to take full advantage of your rights as a consumer of financial products and services here in this country:
1) Deny any knowledge of the debt and provide no information to the collector;
2) Write down the name and address of the collection agency;
3) Inform the collector that you will send a validation of debt letter to them for them to complete. Instruct the collection agency then and there that they are not call you again. If they call back do not answer.
4) Write the debt validation letter and send it via registered mail with a return receipt requested through the U.S. postal service so that the collection agency must sign to acknowledge receipt of it and you will get a receipt showing when they signed for your letter.
5) Paperclip the registered letter receipt to a copy of the letter you wrote and store it in a safe place so you will never lose it.

If the collection agency responds to your letter and the information they provide appears correct you should contact the original creditor to verify that they assigned or sold this debt to the collection agency. Ensure that the collection agency contacting you legally possesses the authority to collect the debt. If the collection agency does not respond to your debt validation letter within 30 days, the law requires the credit bureaus to remove the debt from your credit report.

We recommend that you as consumers inspect your credit regularly to ensure all information is correct, especially after going through a debt validation and debt dispute process.