How to Find Out What Debt Collectors You Owe

Finding out what debt collectors you owe can be a challenge. Read on to learn how to attain this valuable information and get one step closer to improved credit.

If you’ve found yourself in a position to pay off some overdue debt, then congratulations are in order. Paying your debts isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the first step toward rebuilding a healthy credit score and a better financial life.

But sometimes paying off past-due debt isn’t as easy as it seems.

This article will explain how you can find out which collectors you owe and how much you owe them. It will also offer tips and credit repair help for those folks who have a lot of negative items on their credit report. Maintaining a healthy credit score — or re-establishing a score that has taken a few hits — is extremely important for gaining access to quality loans, credit cards, and much more.

Before we jump into an actionable plan for determining how much you owe and to which debt collectors, let’s take a look at why it’s important to know your outstanding debts.

• Understanding Your Financial Situation: Having a complete account of what debts you owe can help you to gain awareness of your overall financial health. When you gain a clear view of who you owe and how much you owe to them, you can develop a plan to pay back outstanding amounts and understand how paying down debt can impact your financial situation.
• Developing a Budget: The art of budgeting can help you stay on top of your personal cash flow. Budgeters can also gain an understanding of how to use their available funds best to manage their expenses. Knowing your debts is a crucial component in assembling an accurate budget. By preparing and maintaining a budget, you can assess how much of your income you can allot to paying your debts while still having enough money left over for all the essentials, including housing, transportation, utilities, and groceries.
• Avoiding Unnecessary Expenses: When your debts begin to pile up, it can be overwhelming. That’s because unpaid debts can cause lenders to charge debtors additional fees for payments not submitted by their specified due date. Late fees are fines levied against debtors who don’t pay their debts on time. By making timely payments, you can avoid late fees and interest charges.
• Growing Your Credit Score: A good credit score can unlock the door to opportunities to access financing at more favorable rates. But your credit score can be negatively impacted by overdue debts. If you know your outstanding debts and their corresponding due dates, you can take steps to more effectively manage your finances and start to improve your credit score.
• Planning for the Future: Knowing how much you owe and to whom you owe it to can help you to manage your finances better today, but it can also help you to prepare for the future and its expenses. Saving for life’s milestone events, such as buying your first home, the costs associated with raising a family, and even retirement, can be much easier if you have a clear view of your outstanding debts.

Now that we have more information about why it’s valuable to understand your debts, let’s take a look at some practical steps that can help you to find out which, if any, debt collectors you owe.

Being organized is an essential skill that can help you in many areas of life, including managing your finances. In fact, when determining how much you owe and to which debt collectors, a great first step is getting organized. To get started, you will need to pull together all of your bills and statements and do your best to arrive at an amount for each debt. This will also be useful information to have when you get to Step 3 in the process.

To gain a proper understanding of your finances and outstanding debts, you’ll need to obtain copies of your credit report from the three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can do this for free each week through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only place that offers all three credit reports for free, no strings attached. .

You can get all three bureaus’ reports and your FICO credit scores by visiting the myFICO website.

Review these reports carefully to verify the debts listed are accurate and belong to you.

Contact each of the original creditors that you owe money to. Even if you think that debt has gone to collection, it’s important to contact the creditor to verify how much they believe you owe. If the creditor no longer has the debt, they should still be able to tell you how much they wrote off as uncollectable.

Reconcile the information on your credit reports with what you found in your records and from the original creditors. Collection agencies will report debts to the credit bureaus and, in doing so, will list their contact information. Use this information to identify which creditors you owe and exactly how much.

Step 5 is perhaps the most important step in this process. This step can help you to save money, which is important when you’re trying to eliminate debt. When a debt goes to collection, the agency that acquires your debt can (and almost always does) add extra fees and expense charges to the original amount. 

This is why it’s essential to contact the original creditor, as outlined in step 3, to verify how much money you originally owed to them. Then you can compare this figure with the total amount the collection agency is charging you to gain a better understanding of their fees.

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a collection agency can charge a “reasonable” fee for their efforts. However, there are limits to what they can charge, and they must state how much of the amount you owe is their fee.

Remember, a debt collector must also show proof of the debt you owe when you ask for it. This means the amount they assumed from the original creditor must be clearly identified. Also know that the difference between the amount you originally owed and how much the collection agency says you now owe is a negotiable figure.

For those who have a lot of negative items on their credit report, or who just need help with credit repair in general, there is assistance available.

Check out our credit repair services and reviews section for a list of the top-rated credit repair agencies and what they offer. These are trusted services that can help you to figure out your debts and get your credit back on track.

Remember, the best way to ensure you are on top of credit issues is to stay educated. We have articles and guides about all sorts of credit-related topics, from debt relief to credit repair to understanding your credit report. Be sure to read as much as you can about these important issues, and you’ll be on the right track to getting your credit back in shape.

And once you’re back on track, remember one of the best things you can do to improve and maintain a healthy credit score is to pay all your bills on time each month.