How To Remove Fidelity National Collections From Your Credit Report
Fidelity National Collections is a medical debt collection company that works on behalf of healthcare providers to recover unpaid balances.
If you have a large medical bill that has been left unpaid, you may begin to hear from them.
Apart from their calls and letters, Fidelity Collections can have a detrimental effect on your credit score.
To collect your debt, they must first open a collection account on your credit report.
This entry can remain on your report for as long as seven years and impact your ability to qualify for loans and credit cards.
The best way to improve your credit score is to remove the Fidelity Collections’ collection account from your credit report.
About Fidelity National Collections
Based in Alliance, OH, Fidelity Collections is a debt collection agency that specializes in collecting medical debt.
They work with hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other healthcare providers to recover unpaid accounts.
Founded in 1986, Fidelity Collections is familiar with the issues that face customers with medical debt.
Specifically, they are willing to create payment plans for customers with large balances.
This is an exceptional feature that not many debt collectors offer.
Even though Fidelity Collections has been in business for over three decades, they are not currently rated with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
This means that there are currently no complaints filed against them with the bureau.
If you are overwhelmed by dealing with negative entries on your credit report,
we suggest you ask a professional credit repair company for help.
How To Remove Fidelity Collections From Your Credit Report
You don’t need to be an expert on the debt collection industry to remove the collection from your credit report.
You just need to be diligent and follow four simple steps.
Get Everything in Writing
Debt collectors love to deal with their clients over the phone. It is quick and allows for the ability to contact customers multiple times throughout the day.
The downside is that communicating with debt collectors by phone allows them to get a bit aggressive to secure payments.
This can lead to the unpleasant call experiences that you often hear about.
To avoid this and hold Fidelity Collections accountable, you should get everything in writing moving forward.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you are allowed to ask Fidelity Collections to only communicate with you via U.S. Mail.
This means that you will be able to hold on to each communication you receive from them and refer back to them at any point.
Additionally, it will help keep Fidelity Collections above board when it comes to aggressive collection tactics.
They will no longer be able to contact you at all hours of the day or use profane or obscene language.
Ultimately, getting your communications in writing will become invaluable when it comes time to negotiate a settlement with Fidelity Collections.
But for now, think of it as a way to tighten the reins and take control of the situation.
Invoke Your Section 609 Rights
Federal consumer law provides you with several rights that you should take advantage of throughout the debt collection process.
After you enforce your right to written communication, you will need to invoke your Section 609 rights as well.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Section 609 states that a debt collector may not report any inaccurate, out-of-date, or outright false information.
It also gives you the right to request debt validation from a collector to ensure that the information is accurate.
Per the FDCPA and FCRA, you are only permitted to validate your debt within the initial 30 days of hearing from a debt collector.
You should avoid procrastinating this step to ensure that Fidelity Collections is not reporting false information to the credit bureaus.
To invoke your Section 609 rights, you will need to write and send a Section 609 letter to Fidelity Collections.
This is an official written request for the debt collector to provide proof that the debt belongs to you and they are legally allowed to collect it.
After you send the letter via U.S. Mail, wait 30 days for Fidelity Collections to return with documents that validate your debt.
Go through all of the paperwork and compare it to the information you have about your debt.
If you notice that there are some errors in reporting, you can contact the credit bureaus and file a dispute against Fidelity Collections.
The bureaus will conduct independent investigations and remove the entry from your credit report if they see fit.
Debt validation is a great way to confirm that Fidelity Collections is reporting information that isn’t untimely or incorrect.
It is also a great way to get their entry removed from your credit report – and possibly get out of paying the debt altogether.
MAILING ADDRESS:
Fidelity National Collections
885 s. Sawburg Ave, Suite 103
Alliance, OH 44601
Make a Deal with Fidelity Collections
If Fidelity Collections can validate your debt, this is both good news and bad news.
The good news is that you are not being scammed into paying a debt that isn’t yours.
The bad news is that you are now responsible for paying the collector.
The best way to approach this situation is to try to reach a settlement with Fidelity Collections.
The most common type of debt settlement that people make in the debt collection industry is known as a pay-for-delete agreement.
A pay-for-delete agreement involves you paying a debt and, in exchange, a debt collector ceasing to report a debt to the credit bureaus.
This will cause their collection entry to disappear from your credit report and boost your score.
Some companies are hesitant to grant pay-for-deletes because it involves altering your credit history.
This is generally frowned upon, but a company may be willing to grant a deletion if they are eager for payment.
To negotiate a pay-for-delete agreement, give Fidelity Collections an initial offer of half of the balance in exchange for an account removal.
You can expect them to decline this offer, which means you will need to up your offer.
Continue this until you reach an amount that Fidelity Collections believes is enough to justify an account removal.
Ask Fidelity Collections to send you a full write-up of the terms and conditions before you make a payment on the debt.
This goes back to the first step of getting everything in writing to ensure accountability.
After you make your first payment, Fidelity Collections will contact the credit bureaus and remove their account.
It will take about 30 days before their entry disappears from your credit report.
Pay for Professional Help
Removing a debt collector from your credit report is not an easy task. Many consumers choose to hire a professional to help them get the job done.
Credit repair professionals can help you manage the tasks of communicating and negotiating with a debt collector.
They can also help you clean up your credit report by removing damaging accounts on your behalf.
Conclusion
Negotiating with a debt collector is no one’s idea of a good time, but it pays to handle them early rather than deal with the damage to your credit score.
Fidelity Collections is one of the more reasonable medical debt collectors, which can help you negotiate a settlement with them.
Follow the steps above or work with a professional credit expert to see success and boost your score.
Everyone has the ability to improve their credit score. If you’re looking for more tips on bettering your credit, check out some of our most popular articles.
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