Why is everyone on this forum so against credit repair firms like lexington law

[Anonymous]

So I am new here and I have been lurking around here a lot.

My story :

I am an international student in US and recently got ssn. And after checking my experian report ( others 2 are not available) on annualcreditcheck, to my surprise, there are unpaid medical bills. I did have energency medical tests done around 1 year back and I always thought I had paid the bills. Apparently not. And since my address and phone no was changed I never knew about this.

Current situation:

NOW since I am out of school and trying to get credit cards, car lease etc I cannot, despite a good job since my credit history is blank and the only 4 things on there are unpaid medical bills in collection.

With this in mind I really want to get these things off my report and I can pay all the debt if needed. And I am considering hiring lexington law since all the process seems complicated ( or maybe it just looks complicated and isnt , correct me). I think the firm could help me remove some or all of them because 1) one bill is repeated 2) my address when the bills were reported is written wrong 3) I did not even have SSN back then!

Is there any specific reason why people here dont like credit repair firms? Are they shady? I do know about some stuff like HIPAA but not too in depth and I dont know the step by step process.

Please bear with me if I am being a noob.

[oldcreditwoes]

I have never used these types of services, so I dont have any firsthand expereince with their process.

That said, I think the primary reason that the community here tends to frown on them is that there is nothing that they do that you cannot do yourself, as far as disputes, GW letters, etc, and they charge some hefty fees to do that which you can do yourself.

I am sure that others will weigh in here, and maybe someone who has had some success with them will also share their experiences.

[Anonymous]

We are opposed to using them for several reasons:

1. What they are allowed to do on your behalf is actually quite limited under the law - pretty much all they can do is send dispute letters on your behalf. You as the consumer have more options. You can negotiate with the original creditors to pull something back from collections (if its assigned and not sold), you can negotiate Pay for Delete agreements with Collection Agents. You can write to creditors and ask for "goodwill" deletions of paid items based on your own 'special circumstances'.

2. They tend to draw out the process as long as possible. Typically they will initially appear to get a lot done in the first month but after that they will usually only send a handful of letters out each month.

3. The money they charge is better spent actually paying off old debts, rather than simply disputing them. The disputes usually just go in circles for months on end anyway.

4. What they do manage to get removed, often simply shows back up 6-12 months later under a different collector when the debt is resold.

The repair process isn't terribly difficult or complicated, but it does take persistence and the ability to "push through the no's". If you are the type of person that gives up the first time you hear "no" then the process can be quite discouraging on a personal level - thats what we are here for, however, to encourage each other and help each other push through the resistance we meet each day doing this task.

You stuff is all medical - this is usually easier than most. At this point, don't concern yourself with minor errors, just contact the original creditors and ask them if they would be willing (and able) to 'recall' the bill from collections so you can pay them directly. Many medical providors are OK with this as they understand that complications with the insurance system is often the cause of bills not getting paid.

[Anonymous]

NormanFH, really appreciate the ton of useful info! I didnt know about 1 and 4. And also I always thought once bill goes to collection hospital has nothing to do with it. I will try calling the medical providers today itself and see what they say. I will post back what happens.

[Shokk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

We are opposed to using them for several reasons:

1. What they are allowed to do on your behalf is actually quite limited under the law - pretty much all they can do is send dispute letters on your behalf. You as the consumer have more options. You can negotiate with the original creditors to pull something back from collections (if its assigned and not sold), you can negotiate Pay for Delete agreements with Collection Agents. You can write to creditors and ask for "goodwill" deletions of paid items based on your own 'special circumstances'.

2. They tend to draw out the process as long as possible. Typically they will initially appear to get a lot done in the first month but after that they will usually only send a handful of letters out each month.

3. The money they charge is better spent actually paying off old debts, rather than simply disputing them. The disputes usually just go in circles for months on end anyway.

4. What they do manage to get removed, often simply shows back up 6-12 months later under a different collector when the debt is resold.

The repair process isn't terribly difficult or complicated, but it does take persistence and the ability to "push through the no's". If you are the type of person that gives up the first time you hear "no" then the process can be quite discouraging on a personal level - thats what we are here for, however, to encourage each other and help each other push through the resistance we meet each day doing this task.

You stuff is all medical - this is usually easier than most. At this point, don't concern yourself with minor errors, just contact the original creditors and ask them if they would be willing (and able) to 'recall' the bill from collections so you can pay them directly. Many medical providors are OK with this as they understand that complications with the insurance system is often the cause of bills not getting paid.

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+1 to this.

Since its only medical stuff, contact the doctor's office and see if they still own the debt.  Ask them to recall it from the CA so you can pay them directly.  If you pay the OC while the debt is still with the CA, it will be harder to have the collection removed.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if they recall it, the CA should remove their tradeline.

[Anonymous]

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@Shokk wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

We are opposed to using them for several reasons:

1. What they are allowed to do on your behalf is actually quite limited under the law - pretty much all they can do is send dispute letters on your behalf. You as the consumer have more options. You can negotiate with the original creditors to pull something back from collections (if its assigned and not sold), you can negotiate Pay for Delete agreements with Collection Agents. You can write to creditors and ask for "goodwill" deletions of paid items based on your own 'special circumstances'.

2. They tend to draw out the process as long as possible. Typically they will initially appear to get a lot done in the first month but after that they will usually only send a handful of letters out each month.

3. The money they charge is better spent actually paying off old debts, rather than simply disputing them. The disputes usually just go in circles for months on end anyway.

4. What they do manage to get removed, often simply shows back up 6-12 months later under a different collector when the debt is resold.

The repair process isn't terribly difficult or complicated, but it does take persistence and the ability to "push through the no's". If you are the type of person that gives up the first time you hear "no" then the process can be quite discouraging on a personal level - thats what we are here for, however, to encourage each other and help each other push through the resistance we meet each day doing this task.

You stuff is all medical - this is usually easier than most. At this point, don't concern yourself with minor errors, just contact the original creditors and ask them if they would be willing (and able) to 'recall' the bill from collections so you can pay them directly. Many medical providors are OK with this as they understand that complications with the insurance system is often the cause of bills not getting paid.

---

+1 to this.

Since its only medical stuff, contact the doctor's office and see if they still own the debt.  Ask them to recall it from the CA so you can pay them directly.  If you pay the OC while the debt is still with the CA, it will be harder to have the collection removed.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if they recall it, the CA should remove their tradeline.

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Yes, that is correct. It's important to ask them to pull it back BEFORE paying. If you pay it first there is nothing to 'pull back' and the CA has no obligation to remove reporting.

[Anonymous]

I have a question. Should I call the hospital and do this or send them letter? I have been reading that I should always send handwritten letter for this so I have proof that OC said they will recall.

Also if OC recalls then does that automatically gets removed off report or is there a procedure to follow up with the respective collection agency to have it removed.

[RobertEG]

I would also add to Norman's item 1 that credit repair organizations are specifically exempted from use of the direct dispute process under the FCRA, so if they do dispute, they can only do so via a CRA.

[cricketsarge]

I used Lexington Law this past year...I paid out well over 2K, and at the end, even though  they did some disputes and had a few things removed, I started getting the letters returned DIRECTLY to me by the creditors, because it was sent to the wrong place, etc. What I noticed, is that the envelopes all had my name and address written on the envelopes that were sent by Lexington Law, and it was handwritten. So, I wonder if they just sent this stuff out and pretended it was from me? Who knows? I don't.

All in all, I feel they wasted my time, because what I wanted them to do (make PFD offers), they never did, and the person I spoke to when I signed up led me to believe they would take that action...more than just sending dispute letters out.

So, here I am, after all, doing it for myself    Hope this helps.

[IamB2]

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@cricketsarge wrote:

I used Lexington Law this past year...I paid out well over 2K, and at the end, even though  they did some disputes and had a few things removed, I started getting the letters returned DIRECTLY to me by the creditors, because it was sent to the wrong place, etc. What I noticed, is that the envelopes all had my name and address written on the envelopes that were sent by Lexington Law, and it was handwritten. So, I wonder if they just sent this stuff out and pretended it was from me? Who knows? I don't.

All in all, I feel they wasted my time, because what I wanted them to do (make PFD offers), they never did, and the person I spoke to when I signed up led me to believe they would take that action...more than just sending dispute letters out.

So, here I am, after all, doing it for myself    Hope this helps.

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This right here is the most important piece. For most people, me included, taking on the collections, charge offs and a vehicle repo in my report was a daughnting process to think about, let alone do something about it. I think that is why most people resort to have someone else do it for them. But, there isn't much you can't do yourself that repair firms can do for you. They can't magically remove your bad accounts. They can send disputes and hope to get lucky that some collection agencies may not want to deal with the time to address any issues and as such, they remove them. They can quote some law on some letter and smaller collection agencies may not want to deal with it. Others (Midland comes to mind) not so much. They don't have a person at each of the CRAs that can remove those bad accounts. 

On top of that, they charge a monthly fee. That alone is a conflict of interest. Why would they resolve something quickly. Why would they work quickly? They are getting paid each month and it is in their interest for the process to take as long as possible. Now if they would charge "Per account removed" with a guarantee that it will never come back or you'd get a refund + interest, heck I'd pay too. But I digress..