Many people have ignored letters from collection agencies. Still others have applied for a mortgage only to find an entry from one on their report. No matter how it gets there, an entry from a collection agency must be deleted from your file.

If you find one on your credit file, you should proceed as follows for the best chance of deletion.

1) Send a DV to the collection agency.

***IMPORTANT*** Always mention in your initial letter to the collection agency that you have never received any communication from them about the account. Even if you have chunked ten letters in the trash already. This statement sets into motion the 5 day time frame for notification of your rights after first contact has been established by the collection agency. By including this statement, on a certified letter, you have informed the collection agency that any and all of their previous attempts to contact you have failed. It will no longer be reasonable for them to later claim they did contact you when they have been told otherwise in a verifiable communication from you.

Just as the collection agency will probably ignore your letter and request for validation, they will invariably fail to comply with the law by sending you the information concerning your rights under the law. This provides you with your first verifiable violation.

Also, the collection agency will no longer be able to legally report the account because you have disputed it within 30 days of first contact based on the date you established in the initial letter.

2) Wait five days, then send in a dispute to the CRA

3) Wait to see if the account is verified by the CRA and for response from the CA. This may take a month or so.

4) If there is no response by the CA, and the CRA verifies the account, send a letter to the CRA as follows:

CRA

On (date) I disputed this account. You claim to have verified the account, however I just spoke to (name) at XYZ Collections, 1-800-555-5555. They claim to have no record of any such account, nor have they heard anything from you about the account.

Please forward to me the name of the person you called to verify this account, the number you reached them at, and any documentation sent by or received by you during the verification process. You are required to furnish this information within 15 days.

If you fail to respond, I and all other parties to this matter, both present and future, will be forced to assume that you never verified this account as you are required to do. I will be compelled to proceed accordingly.

Name

(NOTE: You don't actually have to call the collection agency. Just make up a name and give the number you were given by the CRA. Believe me, nobody will ever check)

5) At about the same time, send a followup letter to the CA as follows:

CA

On (date) I sent you a letter (insert cert. no) requesting you validate the account you are trying to collect from me. You were also made aware that I had never been contacted by you previously about this account. I have received no reply to this letter, but it was delivered to your office on (date rec. by them).

Still, this account remains unvalidated and you are reporting it to one or more credit reporting agencies in violation of the law. This will not be tolerated. If you fail to remove this account from my credit file, until such time as you can provide suitable validation that the debt is legitimate, I will be forced to pursue alternative methods to ensure your compliance with the law in this matter.

Name

6) Wait to see what happens

In many, if not most cases, one of the two will crack and delete the account at this stage. If not

7) Send the credit reporting agency the following letter. Be sure to enclose copies of your evidence against the CA such as DV letters and mail receipts and list each.

CRA

On (date) I disputed this account and you verified it. On (date) I called the CA who could not verify the account to me. Again on (date) I mailed you asking for information about how you verified the account and got no reply. ( NOTE You may actually have to tell them the reply you received had nothing to do with your request. If they do reply at all, it will be a lame attempt to convince you to stop pursuing the matter with them).

Your job is to investigate these matters and reach your own conclusion based on the evidence. You have failed in that task by ignoring the evidence and failing to provide me with any reason to believe that you ever verified this account.

Your continued reporting of this account in spite of the overwhelming evidence that it is being reported contrary to the law will not be tolerated. If this account is not deleted within 5 days and an updated copy of my report sent to me reflecting this deletion I will be forced to seek other remedies.

I have tried to work with you to get this matter resolved, but my patience is wearing thin. Your obligation in the eyes of the law is clear.

Name

At this point, if the account has not been deleted, you may be forced into one of those situations where you have to draft a legal document and send both the CA and tbe CRA an intent to sue letter asking for the payment for their violations. That's another topic for another day.

In my experience, about 95% of all collection accounts will be gone within 60 days using this method. Another 4% will wait for your intent to sue letter and will fold when they see you have legitimate court papers ready to file. For that last one percent, just do it.