“Have You Been Targeted by Debt Collectors from First National Collection Bureau?”

Listen to My True Story, Review My Real Credit Scores, and Find Out How I Achieved a Positive Outcome With Help From Lexington Law

Up until recently, I was blissfully unaware of the world of debt collection. Things changed for me when I came into contact with First National Collection Bureau.

At first, I didn’t understand why I was suddenly receiving mail from this company I’d never heard of. I was puzzled as to why First National Collection Bureau had decided I owed them thousands of dollars. Like I said, I was pretty naive about financial matters at this time!

Eventually I figured out that First National Collection Bureau had purchased my overdue credit card account from Sears. Apparently debt collectors can make a business out of buying debt because they pay only a small fraction of the total balance to the original lender. Then, they try to collect the full balance, plus fees and interest, from the debtor. When they succeed, they can turn a pretty tidy profit!

At first I was really upset with myself for letting the situation get to a point where debt collectors had to be involved. I remembered disagreeing with Sears about my original credit card balance. I thought we had worked things out, but I guess I was wrong! I should have been more diligent about following up with Sears.

Even so, the balance that First National Collection Bureau was attempting to collect seemed different than the amount I’d first disputed with Sears. I really couldn’t understand where they were getting their numbers from! I tried contacting Sears again, but they informed me that once an account has been sold to First National Collection Bureau, it is no longer their responsibility.

Since Sears wouldn’t help me, I figured I had to work things out with First National Collection Bureau on my own. For every letter they wrote me, I wrote one back, enclosing the materials I’d dug up about my original Sears account.

I didn’t get any response to my letters, but I did start getting daily phone calls from a First National Collection Bureau representative named “Steve.” “Steve” wasn’t any help either. He was basically pushing his own agenda, and he had no interest in any other way of resolving the situation. He didn’t care about my circumstances or about the fact that the debt seemed to have been reported inaccurately. He just wanted to set up a payment plan that included lots and lots of interest, so he could get his commission.

For a while, I kept trying to talk to “Steve.” Eventually I realized it wasn’t doing me any good to waste my time on him. I started hanging up on him, then not answering the phone at all. The calls just kept on coming though. It was almost as if communication wasn’t really his goal at all. Instead, he probably just wanted to annoy me to the point where I would finally give up and pay him off, just to make the phone stop ringing.

Since I still refused to pay, First National Collection Bureau tried a new tactic. They reported my Sears card debt as a collection item to the credit bureaus. I didn’t even know they could do that until I got a notice in the mail from TransUnion, showing the black mark on my record! When I pulled my credit report, I saw that my score was 501 points. Of course, at the time I was too ignorant about credit to understand what that number meant. But I definitely understood the “F” that was stamped on my report!

When I saw that “F”, I felt really bad about myself again. I knew I couldn’t get a new job, a new apartment, or new financing of any kind with bad credit. The situation seemed really unfair, because First National Collection Bureau had gotten to tell their side of the story to the world, and I had no way to tell my side. They had painted me as an irresponsible, untrustworthy, financially inept person, and I had no idea what to do about it.

I didn’t know anyone I could talk to about this sort of thing, so I turned to the internet. Online I discovered a whole lot about debt collection and credit repair. Most of it was good news.

First of all, I learned that I’d made a few mistakes in how I’d dealt with First National Collection Bureau. You should never try to negotiate with the debt collectors over the phone. If, by some miracle, you actually come to an agreement with them, you need to have it in writing.

Actually, it’s best not to talk to the debt collector on the phone at all. They aren’t interested in real communication; they’re just pushing their own agenda and trying to exhaust you into submission. Staying on the line with them only wastes your time.

You should never write them as many letters as they write you. It seems ridiculous, but if you send them even a fraction of the mail they send you, your complaint can be marked as “frivolous.” Once that happens, it’s really hard to get the debt collection company to hear you out and take you seriously.

Fortunately, I hadn’t committed the gravest sin of debt dispute: paying the debt collector. From what I read online, once you start paying you make it really hard to dispute the debt later. By paying, you show tacit agreement with the terms and amount of the debt, and it’s like admitting you really owe it. Plus, paying off the debt doesn’t necessarily solve the bigger problem of bad credit.

Now here are some things that gave me hope about my situation:

-Debt Validation. I learned that there is a process called debt validation, which you can use to make the debt collection agency PROVE that you owe them the amount they have reported to the credit bureaus. If they can’t back up their claims with proof, you don’t have to pay them.

-Statute of Limitations. Each state has placed a statute of limitation on debts. If your debt is too old and the statute of limitations has run out, debt collectors are not allowed to pursue you for repayment of that debt.

-Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under the terms of this act, debt collectors like First National Collection Bureau are forbidden to deliberately give false information about you to anyone. This means that if you can prove that they reported the wrong amount or an expired debt to the credit bureaus, you can force them to have the item deleted from your credit report.

-Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This act contains a number of provisions for safeguarding the rights of debtors. For example, it states that debt collectors are not allowed to call before 8 am or after 9 pm. They are also not allowed to call your employer if you have already told them not to. This seems a little strange to me. By the time you realize you need to tell them not to call your work, chances are they’ve already done it!

Another important part of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is that debt collectors are not allowed to threaten legal actions that they cannot actually take. For example, if a debt collector said they would sue you if you didn’t pay on an expired debt, that would be illegal, because in reality, they couldn’t possibly take such a case to court. It would get thrown out immediately. The only reason for them to say they would sue you in this case is for intimidation.

I was excited after learning about my consumer rights, but I still didn’t know exactly how to go about defending myself. I decided that I needed professional help. I chose a company with a great track record of helping people just like me escape the torment of debt collectors and repair their credit: Lexington Law.

Once I called Lexington Law, my situation quickly began to improve. I received new letters from the credit bureaus, showing that the collection item from First National Collection Bureau had been completely erased from my credit history. I could almost pretend this whole thing had never even happened!

Within a few months, my credit had recovered and actually risen into the 700s. With a good credit score, I feel financially secure, confident, and in control of my life again. I’m so grateful to Lexington Law for achieving this amazing result for me.

If you find yourself on the phone with debt collectors from First National Collection Bureau or any other debt collection agency, HANG UP! Don’t talk to them at all until you’ve had the professionals at Lexington Law review your case.

Remember, you don’t have to suffer hopelessly through harassing debt collectors and bad credit! You have rights, and you have options. Call Lexington Law today for your free consultation.