A few days ago I stumbled across a post about Collection Shield 360 by NormanFH. I won't go into details about Collection Shield 360 themselves as you can click the link to the post and read the same thing I did or visit their website by doing a search for "Collection Shield 360".
After reading NormanFH's post I decided to give it a whirl. They work by linking to a Credit Karma report, which I was already signed up for. I had 2 collections on my report that I was planning to send PFD's to and then follow up with other methods if they did not work. One of the agencies is AFNI, which I read on this forum almost never does PFD's. So before moving forward on my own I decided to give CS360 a try.
I signed up and 2 days later they alerted me that they filed a dispute (or a debt validation?) with the AFNI account. They then enable a 45 day countdown where the agency has to provide proof of the debt within that window. Only 2 days later, today, I signed into CreditKarma to check on something else and there was an alert on my account that the AFNI collection had been deleted from my report!
This was a valid debt and I was not disputing that validity. My intention from the day I saw it (I was unaware of it until I started rebuilding my credit 2 weeks ago) was to simply pay it in full and try to have it removed via PFD or a GW letter. I don't have the details on why it was removed specifically, or anything else, but it's now gone. The CS360 website itself does not show that it has been removed or that there has been any update on the progress. I only learned about it through my CreditKarma account.
So, if anyone else is on the fence about trying Collection Shield 360, DO IT! It's absolutely free, they don't even ask for any payment information. But best of all, it really works! NormanFH had a similar experience in his thread and I encourage you to read that as well.
