Credit ratings are based on your credit report. When banks, credit
card companies, or any other business loans money to you, they
report to an agency your status in terms of making your payments on
time, etc. . .
The agency then compiles this information into a
credit report, which is the ultimate gatekeeper to your credit
rating. Negative marks on your credit rating will stay there for 7
years, preventing you from getting most kinds of loans.
When you begin to lapse in payments to a creditor, whether it be
loan payments or credit card or financing payments, the creditor
will go though various steps in an attempt to receive payment. After
a (usually long) serious of warnings, the creditor will eventually
sell your debt to a collections company. When a creditor does this,
they are effectively "writing the loan off" as they generally sell
the debt to a collection agent at a heavy discount.
Basically, the
creditor has decided that their chances of recovering the loan are
small enough that they are willing to lose as much as half of its
value in order to stop pursuing it. When this happens the creditor
will inform the credit reporting agency, and you will be left with
the lowest possible mark on your credit report, which will affect
your rating for up to 7 years.
A crucial step to credit repair is take steps to avoid this "writing
off" of your debt. You should act as soon as possible after being
contacted by a collection agent. The first thing you should do is
contact your creditor - not the collections company - and see if you
can arrange to clear the debt with them. In many cases, if you agree
to repay the debt immediately to the creditor, they will remove the
"gone to collection" mark from your credit rating - essential to
quick credit repair.
If your creditor is unwilling to do this, you're stuck with the
collection agency. In terms of credit repair, keep in mind that the
mark on your credit rating can't get any worse at this point - the
debt is already gone to collection - so take time to consider all of
your options. Usually, the collection agent will contact you in an
aggressive manner demanding immediate and full payment of the debt,
and imply that they will take you to court if this doesn't happen.
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It is to your advantage in this
situation to understand that the collection company has likely
bought your debt at something close to half its value, so any
payment higher than that will result in a profit for them.
Try and offer to pay less than the
full value of your debt immediately. In most cases the collection
agent will be motivated to close your file as soon as possible to
avoid the process getting dragged out.
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They will usually be willing to accept
a quick payment at a discount so they can move on..
In order to achieve credit repair as quickly as possible, always
attempt to pay your creditor rather than the collection agent when
your debt has gone to collection. If that fails, offer the
collection agent a lower figure than the full loan amount. Full
payment to a collection agent should only be offered as a last
resort.