Have an issue with Credit Collection Services? Need help?
Are you being harassed by a debt collector? Is someone from Credit Collection Services contacting you by phone, mail, email, or Facebook? Are they threatening to sue? We explain all about Credit Collection Services and whether they are legitimate and what to do if they contact you.
Credit Collection Services is a debt collector. The company considers themselves to be the “largest and most respected collection firms” in the nation, stating that they have focused on consumer payment obligations for over 50 years.
If you owe legitimate debt, Credit Collection Services is a legitimate company that will try and collect, and yes, you should pay them. However, even legitimate companies have been known to sometimes act unfairly and violate things like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). So if you have been harassed or treated unfairly, consider filing a complaint or working with an attorney.
Yes, Credit Collection Services is a legitimate company.
Credit Collection Services purchases many types of debt, including banks, cable companies, financial institutions, healthcare companies, insurance providers, retail companies, and utilities providers.
Don’t assume you can ignore Credit Collection Services. If the company legitimately believes they are collecting on unpaid debt, and you continue to ignore them, they can file a judgement against you to recover the money. Effectively, they can sue you in court to get the money back.However, companies like Credit Collection Services sometimes make mistakes or violate the most recent FDCPA regulations about when and how they contact you. If this happens, you can share your complaints with outside attorneys, or file complaints with the government. You can get legal help to sue the collection agency if that is insufficient.
Credit Collection Services collects for themselves. They purchase debt from banks, cable companies, financial institutions, healthcare companies, insurance providers, retail companies, and utilities providers, and then they try to recover that debt for a profit.
If Credit Collection Services is calling you and you don’t think you have debt, you need to send them a request for validation. This is sometimes referred to as verification. In either case you have 30 days from the first point of contact to ask the company for authenticity. Sometimes companies make mistakes and they purchase debt without verifying its authenticity so they might try to collect on a debt you don’t actually owe, maybe a debt that’s under someone else’s name or debt that has expired, or was paid off.No matter the situation, if they can’t prove the legitimacy of the debt and provide you with evidence that it’s yours, they have to stop trying to collect and you can send them a communication called insufficient validation to confirm this.
If you believe you’ve already paid your debt, check your records. Sometimes simple mistakes happen where your credit score doesn’t reflect the debt you paid off in which case companies like Credit Collection Services might legitimately believe that they are in the right. You can contact credit reporting agencies to get a mistake fixed. During that time you should still request a validation letter. They have to prove that the debt is yours and that it wasn’t paid off. However, that does not necessarily mean Credit Collection Services will validate the debt in accordance with the law. If you continue to have problems you might consider hiring an attorney to help.
As a debt collector, some of the laws that Credit Collection Services must follow include the FCRA, the FDCPA, and the TCPA.
That alphabet soup stands for the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives you rights to help ensure your credit report remains accurate; the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which protects you from being abused and deceived by debt collectors; and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which limits robocalls and other telephone spam.
If you think any of these consumer protection laws may apply to your situation, tell us about it.
If you believe the debt Credit Collection Services is calling about has expired, you want to do the same thing: check your records. Each type of debt has a different statute of limitations after which it expires. This statute of limitations is different from one state to another. Once you have proof it has expired, you also want to check your credit report. If it’s not accurate in your credit report, contact the credit reporting agencies with your proof.In the meantime send a request for validation to Credit Collection Services. Sometimes companies like Credit Collection Services think they are collecting on a legitimate debt when they aren’t, or they never bothered to check in the first place. If there was a mistake, they should be updated but if the debt has expired, you can send them a cease communications notice. An attorney can help you with this.
Employees don’t make a lot of money. They get the majority of their bonuses when they settle an account like yours. So if you have legitimate debt that you owe, one thing to bear in mind is that employees are more likely to settle sooner rather than later especially if it is closing in on an upcoming payday.What’s more, debt collection agencies like Credit Collection Services purchase your debt from the original creditor for anywhere between 1 and 10 cents on the dollar. If your account is only a few years old they probably paid more for it compared to an account that is very close to its expiration date. They try to get settlements anywhere between 40% and 60% of the original debt, but being aware of the fact that they likely paid a fraction of this, you can try to negotiate for something much closer to the amount they paid with a little bit of profit so that everybody is happy. Companies like this are often happy to take something over months of trying to negotiate and getting nothing.
If you owe a legitimate debt, the best way to get rid of them is to settle with them. You don’t necessarily have to pay the debt in full, especially if you can’t afford it. With an account in collections you might be able to negotiate for a smaller settlement based on what you can legitimately afford.If you don’t think you owe any money, you can ask Credit Collection Services for a validation letter. This forces them to prove the debt is accurate, yours, and hasn’t expired. If they can’t do that then you can send them another letter for insufficient validation which requests that they stop contacting you. These are all things that attorneys can help you with.
If your debt is current and legitimate, yes they can, especially if you ignore attempts to collect. However, debt collectors like Credit Collection Services are prohibited from suing or threatening to sue consumers for payment on a debt that is past the statute of limitations, although they can still ask for payment past that expiry date.
Credit Collection Services CCS owns Credit Collection Services.
The current CEO is Steven Sands.
Credit Collection Services is headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts.
Credit Collection Services buys debt from just about everyone including banks, cable companies, financial institutions, healthcare companies, insurance providers, retail companies, and utilities providers.
Employees are paid an hourly wage and they get a commission which means a percentage of whatever settlement they reach with you. So, they are financially incentivised to settle with you as quickly as possible especially if it’s coming up on a payday.
If you have recently checked your credit score and saw something labeled “Credit Collection Services” on your account that means you had an account that was sent to collections. This account is likely labeled as delinquent. If you have a delinquent account that you settle, it will remain on your account for 7 years with a zero balance unless you have the company remove it as part of your negotiations. This is called a tradeline deletion and it is something an attorney can help you negotiate for if necessary.
Having an attorney isn’t a requirement but it certainly makes a lot of things much easier. Attorneys have experience drafting the appropriate letters at the right times. They can help you draft letters if you need to validate your debt, if there is no basis for the harassment, or if the company has violated the law. Many of these employees don’t get a lot of training so they don’t necessarily know which laws they have to follow in great detail and this can lead to mistakes. However, attorneys can reroute communication to themselves and their offices and deal with these mistakes when they arise.
The FDCPA uses the word “verify,” but some other organizations use the word “validate.” No matter which word is used, it can mean two things. First, You “validate” a debt by sending a letter to Credit Collection Services officially asking them for information that would confirm the validity of the debt. You or an attorney must do this within 30 days from the first time they contact you.Second, Credit Collection Services then “validates” the debt on their end by providing you with this information. Once they get your letter they have to legally stop any attempts to collect on the debt until they have verified the debt. If they don’t follow the law or they are unable to verify it, they have to stop bothering you. It shouldn’t take them more than 30 days to do this.
It can take anywhere from a few months to a few years depending on a lot of factors like how many accounts they have purchased in your name, whether you legitimately owe the debt or not, whether you are trying to establish financial hardship, and how much you can offer as a settlement immediately versus situations where you have to liquidate assets before you can offer a settlement.
What you offer is based on your financial situation. If you have an account sent to collections, chances are you are under financial strain in which case you can try to settle for a much smaller percentage of the total debt. On average companies try to reach between 40% and 60% of the original debt but realistically they are happy to accept settlements for a little bit more than they paid because that gives them compensation for the time and effort spent trying to collect on the account. If it helps them make their commission before the end of a pay period, employees might be willing to accept less if you can settle sooner.
If you ignore attempts to contact a legitimate debt, yes, they can sue you. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise because they have to notify you if they decide to sue you. In order to take money from your bank account they need a default judgment against you after which a judge will give them a court order to use certain methods in order to repay the debt. This can include liquidating assets, cashing in things like life insurance policies, or accessing contents of a bank account or safe deposit box.
You can ignore Credit Collection Services, but you shouldn’t. Even if they have you mistaken for someone else or the debt has expired, it is better to consider legal action and fix the mistake by sending the appropriate validation letters. If you ignore attempts to contact you on legitimate debt, they can sue you.
When debt collection agencies like Credit Collection Services purchase debt from the original lender or from a third-party debt collector, they get your contact information. This includes any contact information which was part of your original account paperwork. This might also include a mailing address and email address.
Yes, you can probably pay your debt to Credit Collection Services with a credit card. The company will work with you to accept different forms of payment. However, you might be charged a processing fee for using a credit card.
Long-term, paying off collections will improve your credit. One thing that people often misunderstand is when and how certain things get removed from your credit score. Your credit score functions like a report card. It contains lots of information about what type of credit or debt you have, how much you have, how much you have used, how often you have made payments on that debt, and so forth. The different credit bureaus use the same information to generate separate credit scores.When an account is delinquent and sent to collections it is harmful to your credit score. The longer you avoid paying it off, the longer it stays on your credit score and damages your credit. If you negotiate for a settlement with a collection company, your delinquent account doesn’t just go away. It stays on your credit score but it shows up as having a zero balance. This stays on your account for 7 years. It’s not as harmful as having an unpaid account, and the sooner you pay it off, the sooner you can steam through those seven years. Alternatively you can work into your settlements what is called a tradeline deletion where they take away the entire account so it doesn’t show up at all after you have paid your settlement.Does debt go away after seven years?A statute of limitations or SOL exists for each type of debt. The length of time varies by state and by the type of debt. The statute of limitations on Federal tax debt is usually 10 years while the statute of limitations on credit card debt in places like California is around seven years. It entirely depends on where you live and what type of debt you have. However, all qualifying debt does legitimately expire at the end of the statute of limitations which means collections agencies cannot sue you to get the money back or even threaten to sue you. However, they can still ask you nicely (or sometimes not so nicely) until you send a cease communications letter.
Your debt doesn’t just go away when you file for bankruptcy. In spite of what Michael Scott’s character from The Office might tell you, you can’t just declare bankruptcy and have your debt disappear. Instead, you have to work with professionals, usually bankruptcy attorneys, to determine which type of bankruptcy you qualify for based on your financial situation. There are different types or chapters which have varying rules. Chapter 13, for example, is the most common for individuals and this is a restructuring or repayment plan. It’s also one of the most common for businesses but for businesses it’s listed as a different chapter. However, it requires you to come to an agreement with all of your creditors about how much you will be able to repay on a monthly basis for the next 3-5 years. Assuming you come to an agreement and you make all of your payments on time without missing a payment, any other debt you had prior to the agreement being made (this does not apply to new debt you take on after entering into this agreement), goes away. This is something you can discuss in more detail with a bankruptcy attorney who has access to your personal financial situation.
For a debt that has already been paid, is expired, or inaccurate, you can contact the credit reporting agencies to get the debt removed from your credit report or edited. If you enter into a settlement agreement with Credit Collection Services, negotiate a tradeline deletion with them to remove it entirely from your credit report.
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