In the prior post, I began responding to the questions asked by one of our readers at FinanceTheDream.com. The questions Candace asked were:
1. What happens to the credit score when debt validation letters and the pay for delete process is used?
2. When derogatory items are removed, does your credit score go up or down?
3. When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history?
4. Can I get paid collection accounts removed?
5. How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?
6. How long will it take for my score to improve?
Questions 1 & 2 were answered in How Do I Clean Up My Credit Report?
Questions 3 & 4 were answered in How Do I Clean Up My Credit Report Part 2?
Now, we are going to address questions 5 & 6.
Q: How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?
A: First, getting an account number on a collection account does not have anything to do with “admitting the debt”. Second, there are a number of ways to get the account number. The easiest is to pull the information directly from your Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring 
account. This way, you don’t have to deal with a nasty collector on the phone. By law, collection agencies are required to send you notification up front about their intent to collect a debt. This letter will contain information on the original creditor, the account number, the balance owed, ways to make payment and your ability to dispute the collection within 30 days before collection efforts start or the collection is reported to the collection agency.
Let’s assume you threw that letter away and don’t have it. Traditionally, collection agencies will engage in massive deforestation efforts and bombard you with letters and envelopes referencing the collection. All documentation from a collection agency will have the account number on it.
What I personally do is use the information provided through myEquifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring account. In this way, I don’t deal with collectors and I get accurate information. The collection agencies are required to provide this to Equifax when they report an account. Additionally, you can use the debt validation method. Collection agencies are required to provide you this information. You can learn more about the debt validation method by watching our #1 Secret To Credit Repair.
Q: How long will it take for my score to improve?
A: There are many answers to this question because there are so many variables. The short answer is today, tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, several months from now, never. Another great answer, huh?
Ok, here’s the deal, it depends on what you are doing. If you are getting derogatory accounts removed, the answer is as soon as the derogatory account is removed. If you are talking about paying off a loan or credit card, the answer is that it will improve when the creditor posts it to your credit report. If you are talking about a Rapid Re-Score, the answer is from a few hours to 96 hours generally speaking. The best way to know when you score will improve is to use Equifax Score Watch
. This service enables you to run multiple scenarios and different simulations based on YOUR actual credit report. There is no better gauge as to the impact of your credit restoration efforts than Equifax Score Watch. You simply cannot affect the fastest possible score increase without it or know how to prioritize your efforts otherwise. As a result, you can waste a lot of time, spin your wheels and get extremely frustrated. If you want to handle credit restoration like a pro, you got use what the pros use. If you are serious about credit restoration, you have to have:
Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring
and
Equifax Score Watch
and, obviously, a subscription membership to Credit Repair College so you can see our step by step videos on how to handle every aspect of credit restoration.
otherwise, you are wasting time and money. 
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comment box below.
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In the prior post, I began responding to the questions asked by one of our readers at FinanceTheDream.com. The questions Candace asked were:
1. What happens to the credit score when debt validation letters and the pay for delete process is used?
2. When derogatory items are removed, does your credit score go up or down?
3. When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history?
4. Can I get paid collection accounts removed?
5. How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?
6. How long will it take for my score to improve?
The first two questions were answered in the prior post on how to clean up your credit report. In this post, we will continue to address, in detail, her additional questions so you too can understand how to clean up your credit report.
Debt Resolution
Q: When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history?
A: There are three answers to this question and they are yes, no and it depends. Great answers, huh? Everything clear as mud? Let’s clear things up. Ok, when derogatory items are removed, it may show that you have a shorter time length of credit history IF, and IF being the operative word here, IF the items removed are the oldest and longest reporting accounts on your credit report AND there are no other accounts of the same age. If the accounts that got removed through debt resolution practices were not the oldest accounts, then the answer is no, it will not show that you have a shorter time length of credit history.
Even if the accounts are the oldest on the credit history, if they are showing as charge-offs or collections, you still want to get them removed because they certainly are not helping your credit report, credit score or overall credit profile from an underwriting perspective.
When you have to worry about accounts being removed that are the oldest is when the account that is removed or disappears is the oldest and is a positively reporting account. This is why you absolutely have to have Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring when working on credit restoration. Believe it or not, you can actually have positively reporting accounts drop off and not report. This is devastating to your score and can really impede your ability to qualify for a loan, get a job, etc. Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring allows you to see what is and is NOT being reported in real time. This is an essential element in credit restoration because it lets you know what to attack. When used in conjunction with
Equifax Score Watch you have live metrics so you can see what is being reported, be immediately alerted to changes in your credit report, your credit score and run simulations that will tell you what will happen if you get a derogatory item removed, pay it off, etc. You can also run simulations that will show your credit score over a period of time so you can see the impact of simply continuing to pay your bills on time or paying them off early. If you are serious about credit restoration, you absolutely have to have Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring and Equifax Score Watch. It is what the pros use and you should too!
Q: Can I get paid collection accounts removed?
A: The answer? Yes, of course. Anything, whether positive or negative, that is on your credit report can be removed. Some are infinitely more challenging than others, like public records (bankruptcy, foreclosure, judgments, tax liens) but a paid collection account can be removed. The approaches to this are through the dispute and debt validation processes since this isn’t really a debt resolution issue since technically, there is no debt to resolve any longer. If you have watched our video on how to develop a comprehensive plan to credit repair, you already know that you have to begin with the end in mind and there is a certain chronology in way you prioritize each aspect of credit restoration, debt resolution, etc. So, before I would personally waste time on getting a paid collection deleted, I would run it through Equifax Score Watch and determine how much it would impact the score. Likewise, if there are other things that need to be addressed, I would run those through Equifax Score Watch as well. Once that is complete, you know the credit score impact of each item and can prioritize your efforts. Typically, debt resolution through dispute, debt validation and pay for delete of unpaid charge-offs and collections will yield a higher credit score faster than eliminating an old paid collection account. Having said this, Equifax is constantly tweaking the credit scoring matrix and unless you run it through Equifax Score Watch you will not know the actual impact based on your individual credit report.
To see the answers to:
- How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?
- How long will it take for my score to improve?
please view our next post:
How Do I Clean Up My Credit-Part 3
Additionally, if you have any questions or comments, please use the comment box below.
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