“Leading Edge Recovery Tried to Ruin Me, But I Repaired My Credit With Help From Lexington Law”

Read My True Story and Review My Documents to Discover How You Too Can Delete Negative Items and Repair Your Credit Score

If your credit has been trashed by debt collectors like Leading Edge Recovery, let me tell you that there is hope. I was able to recover from a terrible credit score and get collection items removed from my credit history, thanks to the professionals at Lexington Law. You don’t have to take my word for it though. The proof is in the documents that I will show you here, including real credit reports and letters from the credit bureaus.

For me and my family, the financial troubles all started when my husband and I lost our jobs. We both got laid off within just a few weeks of one another. I guess that’s a pretty strong argument for the idea that a husband and wife should never work at the same company! When the company went down, we went down.

At that time, we had quite a few financial obligations. With two income streams, we had been just barely keeping up with our bills. Naturally once we lost our jobs, we were in trouble. We simply couldn’t pay all of our creditors, and we had to try to prioritize our bills and pay only the most important ones.

I had a loan from Charter One Bank that definitely fell into the “important bill” category. I tried to pay something on this loan every month, even if I couldn’t always make the minimum payment. I thought that being diligent about paying on the loan each month would prove that I was committed to fulfilling my financial obligations and paying the whole amount back eventually.

I guess I was wrong about that! The bank didn’t care about my personal situation. They just wanted their money. Each time I had a late payment or didn’t meet the minimum payment, the bank would slap me with a $39 late fee or a $39 over-limit fee, or sometimes both! When I saw those fees piling up, it completely demoralized me. I felt like the situation was hopeless. Here I was, trying to pay on my loan, and just getting deeper in the hole because of it. I stopped diverting any of our extremely limited funds to the bank loan, and instead I used that money to take care of my family.

Time passed and Charter One Bank sold my debt to a collection agency called Leading Edge Recovery. When they called to tell me this, I immediately informed them that we could not pay until my husband or I got a new job. It simply wasn’t possible–the money just wasn’t there.

Leading Edge Recovery must not have believed me, because I started receiving a bunch of letters from them, and they called me almost every day. It soon became obvious that it wasn’t worth answering the phone if Leading Edge Recovery was on the other end of the line. Although they claimed to be “helping” me by trying to set up payment plans that would fit into my current budget, I wasn’t fooled. Every payment plan they came up with was saddled with way too much interest. I knew that if I agreed to their plan, I would end up paying far more than the original balance. Even though I wouldn’t agree to their plan, Leading Edge Recovery still added interest and fees to my balance every month. Soon the balance shown on their letters was nearly 30 percent fees and interest!

When it became clear that Leading Edge Recovery couldn’t badger me into paying with phone calls and letters, they tried a new tactic. They reported my debt to all three credit bureaus. The debt soon appeared as a collection item on my credit report, and my credit score began to decline. This worried me because I knew that sometimes employers will run credit checks on job applicants. I didn’t want this collection item on my record, influencing potential employers against me.

As if things weren’t bad enough already, Leading Edge Recovery reported my debt to the credit bureaus AGAIN. Now my score plummeted to a miserable 588 points. At first I couldn’t understand how the SAME debt could get placed on my credit report twice. Eventually I learned a little about debt collection, and I realized that the problem is that the credit bureaus really don’t do a good job validating all of the information they receive from debt collectors. When a credit bureau receives notice of a collection item, the only “verification” they do is to check the information with the debt collector who sent it in the first place!

Since my debt had been reported twice on my credit report, I felt a burning sense of injustice about the whole situation. I got really inspired to fight back against Leading Edge Recovery and get their collection items off of my credit report.

After doing some research online, I learned a few things that made me feel hopeful about my prospects. I found out that I had certain rights and protections under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. For example:

-Debt collectors can’t call you before 8 am or after 9 pm
-They can’t call incessantly as a means of annoyance of intimidation
-They can’t call your employer (but only once you have told them not to)
-They can’t make threats that they can’t or won’t back up in a court of law, including having you arrested, placing liens on your property, seizing your assets, or garnishing your wages
-They can’t send you any letter or notice that looks like a legal document, when in fact it is not
-They can’t report false information about you to any third party, including the credit bureaus

It was this last item that really caught my attention. By reporting the same debt more than once to TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, Leading Edge Recovery had reported false information about me. It seemed that they were in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and I hoped to be able to use that against them.

As I thought about how I might go about using this information to fight back against Leading Edge Recovery, I realized that I couldn’t do it on my own. During our many phone calls, they’d already proven that they were indifferent to my claims and opinions. I wasn’t hopeful that they’d suddenly decide to listen to me. More likely, they’d try to talk me out of my convictions or intimidate me.

I decided to hire a professional. I discovered Lexington Law credit repair services, and the rest is history. I had a free phone consultation with one of their representatives, during which all the questions I had about my situation were answered. I hired Lexington Law then and there.

Within a very short time, I received a notice from TransUnion stating that my collection items had been removed. Notices from Experian and Equifax quickly followed, and suddenly my credit history was clean again! Within just a few short months my credit score recovered to 729.

Thanks to Lexington Law, I once again had good credit. I felt in control of my financial future, and I could now go on job interviews without the shadow of bad credit hanging over my head. When my husband saw the results that Lexington Law had achieved for me, he also engaged their services and repaired his credit.

I’m so glad that I hired Lexington Law, rather than trying to dispute my debt with Leading Edge Recovery on my own. I know my debt collector took the attorney from Lexington Law seriously, which enabled Lexington Law to get results I never could have achieved on my own.

If you’re being targeted by debt collectors who harass you over the phone, intimidate you, and intentionally ruin your credit by reporting your debts to the credit bureaus, don’t lose hope. Just call the professionals at Lexington Law. Get your credit repaired and your financial life set back on the right path. You won’t regret it!