How to Remove Action Financial Services from Your Credit Report
Have you failed to make payments on a debt that’s hanging over your head? Then you may start to hear from a company called Action Financial Services.
Action Financial Services is a debt collection agency that may have been hired by the original owner of your debt.
They have a reputation as being an aggressive and relentless collector.
Unfortunately, that is not the only bad thing about being pursued by them.
In order to pursue you for the debt, Action Financial Services has to first open up a collections account on your credit report.
This entry can cause your score to plummet and can stay on your report for up to seven years.
What’s worse is that Action Financial Services’ entry can be viewed by potential lenders down the line.
This can jeopardize your ability to qualify for loans or credit cards.
In order to stop Action Financial Services from decimating your credit, you must remove their entry from your credit report.
Keep reading to learn the best methods to stop their harassment and boost your credit score.
What is Action Financial Services?
Action Financial Services is a medium-sized debt collection agency that is headquartered in Central Point, OR.
They were originally founded in 2009 and collect on behalf of high education institutions and the U.S. Department of Education for the non-payment of student loans.
They mostly service states in the Western United States as well as Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam.
It should come as no surprise that Action Financial Services is not particularly popular among the people they collect from.
In fact, they have had a number of complaints filed against them over the years.
They have 9 complaints on record with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 37 complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
Specifically, customers have cited problems with billing and collections.
Steps to Remove Action Financial Services from Your Credit Report
When you’re getting countless calls and letters from a debt collector, you may feel helpless against them.
However, there are certain steps you can take to regain your power and fight their collection attempts.
These are the critical steps to get Action Financial Services to remove the collection from your credit report:
Communicate Through U.S. Mail
The key to dealing with a debt collector is understanding and enacting your rights as a consumer
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you have the right to request how and when Action Financial Services contacts you
The first thing you should do when they contact you is asking for them to only contact you through U.S. Mail.
Debt collectors are a sneaky bunch. They like to communicate over the phone because they can threaten, harass, and deceive you without any evidence of their wrongdoing.
They are also prone to make promises over the phone and not follow through on them.
This is why it is crucial that you request all communication through mail as soon as possible.
When you get all of Action Financial Services’ correspondence through mail, you can hold onto each piece of mail and refer back to them at a later date.
It will also become important later when you make a settlement to remove their entry from your credit report.
Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Report
Ask Them for a Goodwill Deletion
Sometimes, people are inclined to pay off Action Financial Services right away to get them off their back.
This isn’t the best method for handling debt collectors, but it is completely understandable.
If this describes your situation, you may benefit from asking for a goodwill deletion.
When Action Financial Services grants a goodwill deletion, they are essentially agreeing to stop reporting the debt out of sympathy for their customer.
This is typically when the debt is a customer’s first offense or they had a legitimate reason for failing to pay the debt, such as a job loss or injury.
To ask for a goodwill deletion, write Action Financial Services a letter explaining the circumstances around your debt and why you would like the collection entry deleted.
Make sure that you are always telling the truth as debt collectors are very good at spotting falsehoods when it comes to failure to make payments.
They may also request documentation that backs up your reasoning.
Make sure that you remain polite when you are crafting your goodwill deletion letter.
By granting a deletion, Action Financial Services would be doing you a favor.
It would serve you best to keep your tone respectful and courteous throughout the letter.
If this all seems like too much, we suggest you seek help from a credit repair professional.
Send a Debt Validation Letter
Even though this is third on the list, this is arguably the most important and time-sensitive step.
No matter what your situation is, you should always take advantage of your right to validate the debt.
When a debt collector acquires a debt from a company, the process is often quick and riddled with oversights.
Ultimately, Action Financial Services is only interested in getting the basic information that will allow them to open a collections account on your credit report.
Sometimes, they may even receive entirely false information – meaning that the debt isn’t even yours.
To find out if Action Financial Services has the correct information about your debt, you can enact your right under the FDCPA to request debt validation.
You will need to write a debt validation letter, also known as a Section 609 letter, to formally request that Action Financial Services verify your debt.
To begin, write a letter that asks Action Financial Services to send definitive proof that the debt they are collecting belongs to you.
Be sure to request specific information such as the total amount of the debt, the name, and the date of the latest account activity.
Under the FDCPA, Action Financial Services is required to respond to your request within 30 days.
If they receive your letter and don’t respond, you can file a complaint with the CFPB for a violation of your FDCPA rights.
Action Financial Services will respond with a series of documents that are supposed to prove that they are lawfully collecting the debt.
If you find information that doesn’t match your own debt papers, you can file a dispute with the major credit bureaus.
They will investigate and delete the entry as necessary.
Negotiate a Settlement
If you cannot secure a goodwill deletion or Action Financial Services is able to validate your debt information, your final step would be to negotiate a settlement in the form of a pay-for-delete agreement.
True to its name, a pay-for-delete agreement is when you make payments on the debt in exchange for the collection account to be removed from your credit report.
This is often a longshot as debt collectors are hesitant to delete collection entries, but you can get Action Financial Services to agree to this if you are persuasive enough.
Begin by offering to pay Action Financial Services half of what you owe.
They will likely give you some push back, but you should work with them until you reach an agreement that works for both of you.
No matter how much you end up paying, make sure that they agree to fully delete the account, not just change the status to paid.
After you come to a compromise, have Action Financial Services send you the agreement in writing so that you can review the terms.
Once you receive this written contract, make your first payment. You should notice that Action Financial Services’ account is removed after 30 days.
If it hasn’t been, reach back out to them and remind them that they need to uphold their end of the deal.
Final Words
Unfortunately, debt collection is a pervasive part of American life.
If you are being hounded by a debt collector, there are sensible ways that you can approach the situation.
By following the steps outlined above, you can remove Action Financial Services’ entry from your credit report and begin to repair your score.
Improving your credit score is an achievable goal for everyone.
For additional tips, check out some of our most popular articles. Make this the year that you regain control of your finances and credit.
The post How to Remove Action Financial Services from Your Credit Report appeared first on Better Credit Blog | Credit Help For Bad Credit.
Original Article Posted at : https://bettercreditblog.org/action-financial-services/