if you just got a collection in the mail do not
pay it we're going to talk about which steps that you should take instead
and how the collection companies might actually owe you a thousand dollars let's hop right in
hey everyone it's me jazzy mac welcome back to my channel i am super excited to talk to you
about this super super viral tick tock video that i did basically talking about
how to handle collections that you get in the mail you know those pesky notices that say you
have until this day to pay this or we're going to report it to your credit now i'm definitely going
to hop in and talk about those steps to take before you pay anything but i know some of you
are going to say well jazzy if it's already on my credit can i do these steps and the answer is 100
yes but there is a certain way that you need to do it and in addition we're going to talk about
how the collection companies could possibly owe you a thousand dollars if they don't follow these
steps so let's get into it oh yeah and shout out to all of the people that are seeing these
credit booths and their scores like listen somebody went from the 500s to the 700s and
they said they did it in just a few months i'm so freaking proud of you that's what i love to see so
thank you for constantly giving me updates on your credit journey this is what i love it's what i do
so let's talk about it now i want to be clear this video isn't about just not paying a bill okay this
video is about those situations where you're just finding your business and you get a surprise
collection in the mail i've gotten that a thousand times where i've gone to the doctor
my insurance paid for everything and then the next thing i know i have a medical collection
at my front door and it didn't even make sense so there used to be a time where every time i
got a collection and it got put on my credit i would pay it off and i would just assume
because i paid it off that it was going to raise my score well as you know we've said in so many
other videos that paying off a collection isn't what actually raises your score and you can go
and verify this at experian.com it is the act of having that item deleted from your credit report
but before it even hits your credit report you do have a consumer right to investigate the validity
of that collection so the four steps that you're ultimately going to take is and this is going to
be done via certified mail you don't want to do anything over the phone when you're requesting
these items and you also don't really need to be doing it over email either when you do it
by mail you create a paper trail that you can use later on if for any situation um they don't give
you the information that you're requesting so the four items that you're going to request are going
to be number one the original contract with your wet signature and you want to make sure that you
explicitly state that it has to have your wet signature because you don't want them
just sending some generic form to you that you didn't actually sign now the second thing that
you're going to request that they send you is going to be the creditor info this is going to be
the name the address and the phone number of the original creditor that ultimately sent the account
to collections now the third thing that you're going to get is it's going to be payment history
and itemized billing the reason why you're going to ask for itemized billing is because you need
to see exactly what you're being billed for and in situations especially when it comes to medical
collections you can be charged as much as 40 dollars for a single aspirin not the whole bottle
but forty dollars per tablet and imagine having a bottle of a hundred tablets you're talking about
four hundred dollars so it's not or i'm sorry four thousand dollars if they're charging you
forty dollars per tablet so those situations where you're being charged astronomical fees it's just
it's best to always ask for itemized billing so that you can say yes i had that no i didn't
now the fourth thing that you're going to ask for is going to be what's known as proof of ownership
and this is basically where you're asking the collection agency to prove
that they have the authorization to collect on this debt from you yes there are scam companies
out there yes there are junk debt buyers that just go around trying to collect on erroneous debts
debts that have been paid debts that don't really exist anymore debts that have been time-barred
so you want to make sure that they have the legal authorization to collect anything from you now
with these four items you want to make sure that you're sending it certified mail with signature
confirmation now as far as the letter goes if you don't feel comfortable just writing this kind of
off the top of your head i do have those templates available where i've already kind of written it
out for you exactly as it needs to be said there's nothing more that you need to add besides just
your name now sending a certified mail is so freaking important with signature converse
confirmation simply because you don't want them to claim that your letter got lost in the mail
and if you have to escalate this matter you want to be able to show that you actually applied
these steps um and requested this information now they only have 30 days to get you all of
this information um according to the fdcpa laws and if they don't get it to you within 30 days
then essentially it invalidates the debt and it keeps them from placing it on your credit
now they've already placed it on your credit but they still fail to get you this information and
to provide you all this proof that you're asking for then they can be hit with a thousand dollar
violation and this is how you ultimately get paid by those collection agencies so
um it would be smart to if you don't get this information back to file a complaint with the
cfpb to make sure that you again have extra you know sort of evidence that you've requested this
nobody's done anything and at that point you can file suit against the collection agency
and you would call out the violation you say hey i requested this information on this date i waited
30 days i made another request they still didn't get it to me so they violated the fdcpa guidelines
now if you don't feel comfortable having you know that sort of a conversation and taking those steps
on your own you can reach out to a consumer protection attorney now of course i am not an
attorney but i've spent some time in a courtroom um going up against different companies and so
don't be afraid to reach out to an attorney to say hey this is what's happened with my credit
this is what they're charging me this is what i've requested and i think that they're in violation of
the fdcpa guidelines and what some judges will do is award you a thousand dollars per violation
so if they violated it as far as refusing to take it off your credit and then refusing to
provide the method of verification maybe you know there was some other violation that that could be
like an easy three thousand dollars that you would get as a result of those violations so
again if you already have something on your credit from a collection agency yes you can
absolutely take these steps but if it's already on your credit then you can very well go ahead
and just send your dispute letters directly to the credit bureaus so if it's already on
your credit then you can send it directly to the bureaus to ask for this same information if it
hasn't hit your credit yet then you would send this particular letter to the collection agency
and again i do have the templates down below in the description box for you so i hope that this
information was super helpful i know everybody's been like freaking talking about it on tick tock
you guys blew me up you blew up my inboxes and i just i didn't even know that so many people were
like you know saying hey i wanted to do that but i didn't know which steps to take so these
are the steps that you can take to ultimately invalidate that debt now you might be saying
well jazzy what if they come back and they give me all of the information that i requested well
at that point it's totally up to you to negotiate a you know a settlement amount even if it's just
25 percent of the balance you can negotiate that amount to make sure to just you know kill
the debt and make it go away once and for all so don't ever just blindly pay a collection because
chances are it's probably not a legitimate debt and even if it is you still want to make
sure that those charges are actually accurate and that there are charges that you agreed to
so i will see you in the next video and thank you so much for joining me today see you later bye