Good evening!
I have written a letter based on a GW template that I pulled from this forum and I am hoping that you all would be able to review it and offer suggestions to improve it. It's fairly wordy, so I would like to "trim the fat" but yet still leave enough information to show that I put some thought and feeling behind it.. assuming any of that is necessary to help better my chances. I have removed my personal information from the letter and have replaced it with bold typing with it in brackets to indicate that I will change it later.
Thank you in advance for reviewing it!
{my name}
{my address}
{my city, state, zip}
August 6th, 2010
{collection agency name}
Collection Department
{collection agency address}
{collection agency city, state, zip}
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing a letter about my experience with {collection agency name} that is a mixture of a grateful “thank-you” and a pressing request concerning a listing in my credit files that I would like to have revised.
In 2006 I needed the immediate services of a medical facility for a concern that I had, and my girlfriend brought me to {hospital name} in {city, state}. While I was waiting I was given an emergency care sheet to fill out, in which I put down my address (which has since changed) and my phone number (which has remained the same), and I also gave them my credit card to charge me for the services I was needing. After the short wait they ushered me to one of their stations and treated me very nicely, and after a couple hours of watch, they noticed that my fever was dropping so informed me that I could leave, but also wrote me a prescription. I thanked them and took the prescription and got the medicine that I needed, but after that I heard nothing else from them so I mistakenly thought that everything was paid for.
Two months ago I pulled all three of my credit reports to do a long overdue check-up, and I saw something listed on my Equifax credit as a collection, which was a collection from {collection agency name}. At first I had no idea what this was, but doing some research I found out what this was. Part of this research was fueled by your own company when I filed with Equifax requesting more information, and shortly thereafter I received a phone call from your company stating that I owed money, so I requested for the agent to mail me out what the bill is so I could verify it's authenticity. A couple days later I get a notice from Equifax verifying it is something that I owe, and that it is with {hospital name}, along with the timeframe. From the information that I had been given on the phone and also from Equifax, I put 2 and 2 together and called back the agent at {collection agency name} to pay the amount in full.
The parts of my “thank-you” are that the agent I spoke with on the phone was very polite and courteous, and the other part was that there was no associated “collection fee” for my apparent late payment for what was owed. I was very appreciative of those two things, although the latter part is directly related to the part of my credit file that I would like to have revised.
When I had originally spoken with your agent, he had informed me that numerous letters had been sent to my old address (which I had lived in 1-2 years after I had visited {hospital name} but I never saw a letter come from {hospital name} or {collection agency name}) and that they had called me at one point in time a couple years ago (to the same phone number that I still have to this day), but could not confirm if a voice message had been left. I do not recall a voice message left on my phone, so I can only assume that one was not left. When I finally did hear about the amount being owed and verified it's authenticity (which was maybe a week timeline from finding out about it and verifying it), I promptly paid for the total amount due. Because of these circumstances, I would appreciate it greatly if you could consider removing the negative mark from my credit report. This is currently (and hopefully the last ever!) the only blemish that I have on my credit report from all three credit agencies, and I am looking to buy a house this next year, so I would like to be able to present a clean report to my lenders.
Thank you for taking your time into reading this letter, and hopefully for considering my request.
Sincerely,
{my name}
Original Starting Score:553