Steps To Remove Capital One Collections From Your Credit Report

Summary: This article will provide step-by-step instructions to remove a Capital One collection or charge off from your credit report.

When you fail to pay your Capital One credit card debt, it may get sent to collections.

This generally results in a collections account getting added to your credit report, which will significantly impact your credit score.

Therefore, it’s important to remove Capital One Collections from your credit report. Here’s how.

What Happens if Capital One Sends a Bill to Collections?

There are a few topics to understand when it comes to a Capital One collection. First, when you are simply 60-90 days late on your credit card debt, Capital One’s in-house collection agency will likely be the debt collector you’re dealing with.

However, if you’re significantly late on unpaid credit card debt, it’s very possible that Capital One has “charged-off” the account. This basically means that Capital One has determined that it’s unlikely they will collect on the debt, and marked it as a charge-off as a business expense.

If you have been contacted by Capital One collection department directly, it means that the credit card hasn’t been charged off yet.

However, if you’re being contacted by a third-party collection agency, the debt has likely been charged off, and sold to another collection agency. A third-party debt collector will buy a collection account for pennies on the dollar and attempt to collect the debt and profit.

Removing a Capital One Collection From Your Credit Report

This article will show you how to remove Capital One Collections from your credit report before it’s been charged off and sold to another collection agency.

If your collect account has been sold to another debt collector, you can read how to get a collection removed here.

In order to get the capital One collection removed from your credit report, you will need to handle their collection department yourself, or hire a credit repair company to deal with them.

I will outline each method, and you can decide which one works best for your situation.

1. Ask for a Goodwill Adjustment

When your collection is still with Capital One, you may ask them for a goodwill adjustment. This is basically an act of charity on Capital One’s part based on your request.

It helps if you are in good standing normally and had some out of the norm circumstances that caused the issue.

For example, did you lose your job or did your spouse fall ill? It must be something that you couldn’t prevent but otherwise, you had a great payment record. This could warrant debt forgiveness.

It’s best to write their collection department a “Goodwill Letter”. This is a letter that will explain why you were late, apologize, and ask if they would be willing to remove collection out of good will. This can also work for late payments.

A “goodwill letter” will work best if you have a long history with the company. More importantly, you will need to have great payment history with your credit card debt.

2. Offer to Pay For Delete

Another technique you can use to remove the collection is to contact Capital One Collections and offer to pay the debt if they agree to remove the “collection” or “charge off” from your credit report.

This method works best right before the credit card company sends the unpaid credit card debt to another collection agency. It can work for both collections and charge-offs.

Make sure that you get everything in writing before making a deal with Capital One. Pay for Delete is essentially a debt settlement process with Capital One.

Make sure that the credit card issuer agrees to remove the collection account from the credit reports of all three major credit bureaus.

3. Disputing the Debt with the Credit Bureaus

The final do-it-yourself method you can employ is to simply dispute the collection on your credit reports.

If you don’t agree with the debt or think what’s reported is unfair, you can dispute the debt.

To start, you must pull your credit reports so you know which bureau is reporting them. Sometimes only one bureau reports it and other times all three report it.

Make note of which bureaus have the information and write them a dispute letter. In your letter, state why you think the collection information is incorrect or unfair.

If you have any supporting evidence, provide it to them. This includes any letters you have from the collection agency pay-for-delete agreement.

The credit bureaus have 30 days to look into the issue. They’ll contact the collection agency or Capital One, whoever reported the debt to find out the truth.

If they can’t prove something other than what you stated, they must remove Capital One Collections from your credit report.

4. Hire a Professional

Lastly, if you’re the type of person who would rather have a professional credit repair company handle it and just be done with the whole thing, I suggest you check out Lexington Law Credit Repair.

They’ll take care of you, and honestly they usually get negative items removed quicker than if you try to do it yourself. Give them a call at 1-844-331-6062 or Check out their website.

How Capital One Collections Can Impact Your Credit Score

There are 3 ways failing to make your credit card payments can affect your credit score.

The first way is called a “late payment”. A late payment is listed as either 30, 60, 90, or 120 days. While late payments do have a negative impact on your credit score, they are nearly as significant as collections and charge-offs.

The tricky aspect of collections and charge-offs is that sometimes you will get both negative entries on your credit report for the same credit card.

In other words, Capital One, like most credit card issuers, will “charge off” the credit card account, then they will sell the debt to a collection agency, and that will get listed as a collection. Both will significantly affect your credit history in a negative way.

The higher your credit score is before the collection accounts, the more of an impact it will have. For example, if your credit score is 760 and you get a collection, it could fall to 720. However, if your score is 680 and you get a collection, it might only fall to 640.

Know Your Debt Collection Rights

It’s a good idea to fully understand your rights when dealing with Capital One. Debt collectors are required to abide by certain laws when attempting to collect on collection accounts.

By understanding your rights, you have the advantage when negotiating. Here are a few practices debt collectors can’t do:

• Threaten to take your property.
• Talk to your friends or family about your credit card collection.
• Harass you or your family.
• Use profane language.
• Threaten you with prison.
• Call you before 8AM.
• Call you after 9PM.

Dealing with Capital One Collections

When you’re dealing with Capital One Collections, it’s always best to try and avoid communicating over the phone. You want to have a paper trail when doing any kind of negotiating.

In addition, it’s usually much less stressful dealing with any debt collectors over e-mail or snail mail. This is especially true with aggressive debt collectors who tend to try and scare you into paying.

You can simply request that all future communication be done over e-mail or mail. Then you can block their number on your phone.

If you do find yourself having to deal with Capital One over the phone, try and record the call. Most cellphones have this feature nowadays.

Capital One Collections Department Contact Information

Here is the contact information for Capital One if you decide to go the do-it-yourself credit repair route:

Mailing Address
Capital One
Attn: General Correspondence
P.O. Box 30285
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0287

Phone number
877)383-4802

Final Thoughts

Don’t leave Capital One Collections on your credit report. It’s important to remove them as soon as possible so you can keep your credit score up.

If you had a unique circumstance that caused you to fall behind, tell them. You may be surprised to learn how understanding they can be when they hear the truth versus only seeing that you aren’t paying your bill.

No matter what you do, make sure you find a way to remove Capital One Collections from your credit report. Whether it’s on your own or with the help of a credit repair agency, don’t let the collection account ruin your credit score.