“Discover the Fast, Easy Method for Repairing Your Bad Credit”

No Credit Score is Beyond Repair if You Follow my Advice and Get Professional Help from Lexington Law

Having a low credit score can be very limiting. I should know–my own credit score dropped to 501 points recently! I’d like to share my true story, complete with real credit scores and other documents, to prove to you that there is hope. Your credit can be repaired, as long as you are willing to invest in your future and get professional help.

My bad credit score came about because of a disputed Sears charge card account. I had opened the card to get six months zero financing on my Christmas gifts, expecting to pay off the card well before the interest kicked in. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but, like many things, not so great in retrospect.

I had some unexpected expenses, and I ended up holding a balance on the Sears card. The interest started to accrue, but the amounts didn’t seem correct to me. I did the math, and I didn’t understand where Sears was getting their numbers from. I disputed the balance with Sears, and I thought I had reached an agreement with them.

There must have been a misunderstanding, because the next thing I knew a collection company called Zwicker and Associates started hounding me for repayment of that Sears card debt. Confused and frustrated, I called Sears again, only to be told that since my account had been sold to Zwicker and Associates, Sears could no longer help me.

I tried to explain the history of my situation to Zwicker and Associates, but they were not very responsive. Whenever I got on the phone with their representative, the conversation somehow always led back to payment plans. He really had a one-track mind as far my debt went! Only repayment would do; he wasn’t interested in any other resolution for my account, even if the situation was completely unfair and the debt inaccurate.

I had kept documents from Sears showing that I had paid the amount we’d agreed upon, and that Sears was supposed to have credited the rest of the balance off my account. I figured I could make copies of these documents and send them to the Zwicker and Associates head office, where surely someone would review them and realize that they should stop trying to collect on my account.

No such luck. I must have mailed those papers at least 4 times over several months, and I never once got a reply.

Meanwhile, Zwicker and Associates added a new tactic to their repertoire of calling me every day and sending angry letters each week. They reported my debt as a collection item to the credit bureaus! I found out about this because the credit bureaus are required by law to send you a notice every time an item is added to or deleted from your credit history.

When I saw the collection item, I was pretty mad. I thought that Zwicker and Associates should know by now that my debt was at the very least questionable, if not totally inaccurate. And yet they still reported it to the credit bureaus!

I pulled a copy of my credit report from TransUnion to see how much damage the collection item had done. My score was only 501 points. To be fair, my credit hadn’t been stellar to begin with. But the collection item definitely hurt. A single collection item can lower your credit score by a hundred points or more.

I realized that lowering my credit score was just another tactic that Zwicker and Associates was using to try to make me pay them. They were hoping I would be so afraid of the prospect of having that collection item sit on my credit report for YEARS that I would just give up and pay them.

I did actually consider paying. The amount wasn’t huge, and I probably could have found the money to pay it off in one lump. However, the unfairness of the situation kept bothering me, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay. There had to be another way to resolve the situation.

After doing some research online, I found some websites that talked about what you should and should not do when targeted by debt collectors. I found that I had made a lot of mistakes already!

For example, you should never waste your time trying to talk sense into your debt collector. Debt collectors work on commission, so they only get paid if you pay off your debt. Naturally, they are extremely reluctant to consider any other option besides repayment for resolving your account! Any payment plan they propose is likely to be stuffed with interest and fees and ultimately in their own best interests, not yours.

Also, I learned that while it is a good idea to write the occasional letter to the debt collection company, you should 1) hire a lawyer to compose the letter using the proper legal language, and 2) send any and all letters via certified mail. That way, there is proof that the debt collection agency actually received your letters, and they will have to respond.

Finally, I learned that you should never even consider paying a debt collector until you have exhausted every other legal alternative. This is especially true if you have reason to believe that the debt in question is inaccurate or expired. Paying on an inaccurate or expired debt can be seen as you admitting that you owe the debt, even if you don’t actually owe a dime, legally speaking.

The most frightening thing I learned was that paying off a debt is no guarantee that the debt collector will then remove the corresponding collection item from your credit history! Once you’ve paid them, you no longer have anything to bargain with. You must make the debt collector agree to remove the collection item BEFORE you pay.

I was humbled by all the mistakes I’d made or nearly made, and that’s when I knew I needed professional help. I believed I had a really good case against Zwicker and Associates, and I didn’t want to mess it up by sounding unprofessional or trying to negotiate deals without a full legal understanding of the situation.

I discovered a credit repair law firm called Lexington Law. No matter how hard I looked online, I only found good reports about their services. In a single year, they remove about one million collection items from their clients’ credit histories. They’ve been in the credit repair business since 1991, so they really know their stuff.

When I called Lexington Law, I was able to tell my whole story to the professional, friendly rep who took my call. She didn’t interrupt to push her own agenda like the folks from Zwicker and Associates always did. Believe me, being LISTENED to for a change was a very good feeling.

After hearing me out, the Lexington Law rep confirmed that I did have a good case against Zwicker and Associates. She told me about the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, both of which protected my rights as a consumer. The Lexington Law rep assured me that if we could prove that Zwicker and Associates had reported an inaccurate or invalid debt to the credit bureaus, we could easily get the collection item removed from my credit history.

Lexington Law offers a no-risk refund policy, so I knew I had nothing to lose by hiring them. If they were able to help me, I would pay a small fee for each month of service and consider it money well spent!

Within a month, I received proof that Lexington Law’s credit repair service was working. All three credit bureaus sent me notices showing that the Zwicker and Associates collection item had been deleted!

It felt so good to hold those papers in my hands! I felt extremely relieved, and very pleased that justice had triumphed and I would not have to suffer years of bad credit based on an ancient misunderstanding about my Sears card.

Once that collection item was gone, my credit score steadily recovered. Today it’s almost as if this whole unpleasant situation never even happened.

If you find yourself targeted for collections by a company like Zwicker and Associates, don’t just roll over and pay. Let Lexington Law help you exercise your legal rights and restore your good credit!