“World Financial Network National Bank Hurt My Credit.  I Bounced Back Using This Little Secret.”

My True Story Will Show You How to Deal with Debt Collectors and Get Your Credit Repaired

If you’ve been targeted for debt collection by a company like World Financial Network National Bank, get ready to have your credit trashed. The standard modus operandi for debt collectors is to call you night and day, hoping you’ll agree to an interest-laden payment plan.

If you don’t succumb to their harassment, the next step is to report your debts to the credit bureaus. A single collection item can lower your credit score about 100 points. Most people have more than one collection item, so their credit scores end up dropping into the low 500s.

In my experience, this was certainly the case. I had fallen behind on my credit card payments, and those debts got sold to World Financial Network National Bank for collection. I didn’t have the money to pay off those debts, so an agent from World Financial Network National Bank called me every day for months.

By the time my income improved a little bit and I could think about paying down my debts, the balances had grown nearly 50 percent from all the interest and fees that World Financial Network National Bank had added to my account. My income just wasn’t keeping up with my debt! The situation seemed pretty grim.

At this same time, my wife’s car died. We desperately needed a new vehicle for her, so that she would be able to go to work and contribute to the household income. I didn’t want to buy her another junker, but I didn’t see how we could afford anything else. I pulled a copy of my credit report, just to see how bad it was. Sure enough, my credit score barely topped 500. No way were we going to get decent financing for a good car with a score like that.

I saw that there were several collection items from World Financial Network National Bank on my credit report, and assumed that those items were responsible for my low score. I knew I needed to erase those credit items in order to improve my family’s quality of life.

At this point, I decided to take action. Unfortunately, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I committed a lot of the “Don’ts” of debt dispute and credit repair:

-Don’t try to be friends with your debt collector. I tried talking things out with the rep from World Financial Network National Bank. I figured if I just explained things to him, he would understand what was going on and cut me some slack. Wrong! Like all bill collectors, the one I was dealing with was a hardened professional who would never let human sympathy interfere with his ability to make money.

-Don’t write letters unless you’re a lawyer. Since I wasn’t getting through to the World Financial Network National Bank rep on the phone, I thought maybe I should try sending a letter to the main office. I wrote them a letter every time they sent me one, which was about once a week. Big mistake. Since I wasn’t familiar with the law at the time, my letters were not effective at all. Plus, if you write as many letters as I did, you can get your dispute labeled as frivolous and then no one will take you seriously.

-Don’t expect to pay the full debt balance. Debt collection companies purchase debts for pennies on the dollar, so they don’t need you to pay in full in order to turn a profit. I wish I’d known this sooner! It would have made me feel a lot better about my finances.

-Don’t agree to any sort of payment plan before you’ve exhausted every other option. Sometimes debt collectors will try to collect on expired or inaccurate debts. If you pay on a questionable debt, it could be seen as you admitting that the debt is valid. Then you end up paying for something you didn’t legally owe in the first place.

-Don’t assume paying off your debt will repair your credit. Removing the collection items from your credit report is a separate transaction. Once you’ve paid, debt collectors had no incentive to do this for you. Make them agree to do it before you pay.

-Don’t agree to anything over the phone. If you do end up negotiating a payment plan or initiating any kind of debt dispute process, do it in writing. You need written proof of what you and the debt collector agreed to.

-Don’t believe everything your debt collector says. My World Financial Network National Bank agent told me that his company would garnish my wages if I didn’t pay. That scared me at the time, but now I know that it was an empty threat. In order to take legal actions against you, like garnishing wages, seizing assents, placing liens on your property, or having you arrested, the debt collection company must first take you to court and win the case. Most of the time, going to court is not worth the trouble for them.

-Don’t try to handle everything on your own! No matter how much research you do or how well you think you understand your rights, you will still make mistakes. I know I did! The debt collection companies just have too many tricks up their sleeves, and it’s easy for a credit repair novice like you or me to get fooled.

After I’d tried every tactic I could think of, I still hadn’t made any progress. World Financial Network National Bank was not backing down. In fact, they got even more aggressive! It got to the point where I wouldn’t even answer the phone to talk to them anymore.

Finally, I confided in a friend about my credit problems. My friend urged me to contact a credit repair service called Lexington Law. This brings me to the one and only “do” of credit repair and debt dispute:

-Do get professional help! Professional credit repair firms like Lexington Law have the resources and experience to effectively dispute your debt and quickly repair your credit.

If you don’t remember anything else from my story, remember that!

Once I called Lexington Law for my free credit repair consultation, I felt a tremendous sense of relief. The Lexington Law rep was very confident that my credit could be repaired, and she told me exactly how her company would handle my case.

First, Lexington Law would initiate a debt validation process on my behalf. This means that Lexington Law would demand that World Financial Network National Bank prove that I owed the debt they were trying to collect from me. If they couldn’t prove that I owed the debt, it would be erased immediately.

Next, Lexington Law would make sure that the statute of limitations on my debt had not expired. The laws differ by state, but debt collectors are not allowed to ask for repayment on debts that are over a certain age. They’re not allowed to report those debts to the credit bureaus either.

Lexington Law would also review my credit report and make sure all of the collection items were valid. If any of them had been reported incorrectly, they would have to be removed from my report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Finally, Lexington Law would review all the details of my interactions with World Financial Network National Bank and see if anything was in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Remember when the World Financial Network National Bank rep threatened to garnish my wages? If Lexington Law could prove that World Financial Network National Bank had no real intention of taking me to court (or had no case against me), then saying they would garnish my wages was an empty threat in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

I was so excited about Lexington Law’s plan that I hired them on the spot. They offered me a no-risk refund policy, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need it!

Sure enough, within 30 days, I received proof from the credit bureaus that the World Financial Network National Bank collection items had been completely erased! With those items gone, my credit score began to improve steadily. It increased 106 points in two months!

With my newly repaired credit, my wife and I were able to go to the car dealership and get her a quality used car. I feel so much better knowing that she has a reliable vehicle. Plus, with her extra income we are making great strides towards full financial recovery.

I’m so glad my friend told me about Lexington Law! They made a huge difference in my life. I know if you give them a chance, they can repair your credit and change your life as well.