Are you concerned about an entry from First Federal Credit Control?
If the name above is on your credit report, you’ve probably received phone calls and letters from the agency as well.
First Federal is most likely on your report as a collections entry because of an unpaid bill.
Because collections accounts can lower your credit score, it’s important to act quickly to get them off your report.
Read on to learn how to put an end to First Federal Credit Control’s calls and stop them from doing further damage to your credit.
About First Federal Credit Control
If you’ve never dealt with First Federal Credit Control, you may be a little skeptical.
Fortunately, FFCC is a legitimate third-party debt collection agency.
Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, the agency has been operating since 1970.
Over the past 50 years, FFCC has collected debts in the following industries:
- Business to business
- Consumer
- Healthcare
- Financial institution
- Retail
If you carry debt in any of those industries, the entry featured on your report could be legitimate.
When you fail to keep up with payments to a service provider or lender, they often hand your debts off to collections agencies.
These agencies might buy your debts for pennies on the dollar or get paid to help the original lender/provider collect.
Either way, once a debt hits the collections stage, an entry is added to your report, staying for 7 years.
Depending on the lateness and balance on the account, it could significantly impact your score.
A debt collector may also contact you frequently until you make a satisfactory payment.
If you are overwhelmed by dealing with negative entries on your credit report,
we suggest you ask a professional credit repair company for help.
Ask Lex Law for Help
How to Deal with First Federal Credit Control
Like most collections agencies, First Federal Credit Control is no stranger to consumer complaints.
Some of these complaints mention the agency’s failure to validate debts and reporting errors.
You can look to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Better Business Bureau to view complaints filed against debt collectors.
Collections agencies are held to a set of standards set forth by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The FDCPA dictates how and when a collections agency can contact you, as well as requiring them to report accurately.
It also lets you choose how you wish to communicate with debt collectors, meaning you can stop their incessant phone calls.
We recommend communicating by writing, using certified mail to provide you with clear documentation of your interactions with the agency.
It’s the best way to ensure your collections entry gets deleted from your report.
Just send the agency a letter explaining that you know your rights under the FDCPA and want to communicate in writing.
FFCC’s address is listed below:
24700 Chagrin Blvd #205
Beachwood, OH 44122
3 Ways to Get First Federal Credit Control Off Your Credit Report
With a better idea of how collections work, here are 3 ways you can get a collections account off your credit report.
1. Request Debt Validation
The FDCPA gives consumers a 30-day window to ask for debt validation.
If you send FFCC a debt validation letter in that timeframe, the agency will have to provide evidence linking the debt they’re trying to collect to you.
Any time you’re concerned that a collections entry is inaccurate, you should dispute it.
The validation request could unveil a reporting error or identity theft, both of which would get the entry deleted from your report.
But you should also try debt validation even if you do owe FFCC money. Collections agencies don’t always have the proof they need to respond to a debt validation request.
While this strategy isn’t guaranteed to work for legit debts, it’s worth a shot. You could get the entry off your report without paying a cent of what you owe.
2. Negotiate a Pay-for-Delete Agreement
Debt validation doesn’t always work, and the agency is not obligated to validate debts if you inquire after 30 days.
Your next best bet is a pay-for-delete agreement.
If you log onto FFCC’s website or answer their next call and pay off your account balance, it will stop their calls and letters.
But you’ll still see the collections entry, and its impact on your score, on your credit report for 7 years.
In order to have an entry deleted from your report, you have to get FFCC to agree to get it removed.
The best way to do this is by offering to pay some of the amount you owe the agency. You may be able to negotiate your payment down to a small percentage of what you owe.
Once you and the agency agree on the terms of your arrangement, you should submit a payment and check your credit score to ensure the entry gets removed.
Don’t forget to arrange this payment by mail, as a phone call is less concrete.
If your report is still featuring the account 30 days after submitting your payment, follow up to make sure the agency reports your payment to the credit bureaus.
3. Employ a Credit Repair Company
If you want to leave disputing inaccurate entries and negotiating with collectors to the experts, you should work with a credit repair company.
They’ll evaluate your credit report and create a specialized plan for boosting your score.
Whatever is bringing down your score, they’ll get to the bottom of it quickly.
They can also assist you with credit problems such as:
- Judgments
- Foreclosure
- Bankruptcy
- Repossessions
- Liens
- Inaccurate hard inquiries
- Identity fraud
Whether you’re dreading contacting the collections agency or feel like you’re in over your head with more challenging credit issues, a credit repair company could be worth the cost.
