If you’ve noticed an entry from AFS Acceptance show up on your credit report, you are likely being pursued for an unsettled debt.
AFS Acceptance is a debt collection company that pursues people for payments on outstanding debts.
They are annoying to deal with, but their incessant calls are the least of your worries.
The presence of a collection account on your credit report can impact your credit score for up to seven years, even after you have paid off the debt.
It is not enough to simply pay your outstanding balance; you must negotiate with AFS Acceptance to remove the collection entry from your report entirely.
To learn more about how you can remove AFS Acceptance from your credit report, read our full how-to guide below.
What is AFS Acceptance?
AFS Acceptance is a small collection agency that is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Founded in 1996, they are an auto lending company that helps collect debts on behalf of the auto lending industry.
According to their website, AFS Acceptance “is an established, full-service auto finance company that has specialized in serving the subprime financing needs of franchise and independent car dealers since 1996.”
While they are a legitimate business, they are not the best people to work with. AFS Acceptance currently has 30 complaints filed against them with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 46 with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The majority of complaints have to do with inaccurate reporting, harassment, and failure to validate debt information. If you experience these things when dealing with AFS Acceptance, you may consider filing a complaint too.
Steps to Remove AFS Acceptance from Your Credit Report
Here are the steps you need to take to remove AFS Acceptance from your credit report for good.
- Ask for a Goodwill Deletion
- Request Debt Validation
- Negotiate a Pay-for-Delete
- Consult a Professional
Ask for a Goodwill Deletion
If you have already paid off the balance of the debt, don’t worry. You can still get the collection removed from your credit report.
AFS Acceptance may be willing to stop reporting the debt if you ask for a goodwill deletion.
A goodwill deletion is when a debt collector agrees to stop reporting a paid debt to the major credit bureaus out of kindness.
They may grant you a goodwill deletion if you write them a letter explaining the reason for your late payments and why you would like the entry removed.
When writing your goodwill deletion letter, be sure to be polite and refrain from demanding a deletion.
Calmly explain your situation and tell them how the collection account is affecting your financial goals.
If you are trying to qualify for a mortgage, this is a good thing to mention as a reason for requesting a goodwill deletion.
If you make your case, AFS Acceptance may see your side and grant you the deletion.
Request Debt Validation
If you are unable to get the entry deleted through a goodwill deletion, you can always try to get it removed on a technicality.
You can do this by looking for inaccurate information through a debt validation request.
Debt collectors get it wrong sometimes. It’s not uncommon for information to get lost or mixed up when it moves from an original creditor to a debt collector.
This is why it’s important to verify that the debt is yours right away before you move towards making any payments on it.
Begin by writing a debt validation letter within 30 days of the first contact from AFS Acceptance.
Ask that they verify the name, dates of account activity, total debt, and any other information associated with the debt.
The date of the debt is especially important because of the statute of limitations regarding debt repayment.
Each state has a maximum amount of time that a collector is legally allowed to pursue a debt. If they fail to pursue the debt within this time period, you are not obligated to repay the debt.
When you write your debt validation letter, make sure to request a return receipt that shows that they have received the letter.
This will give you physical evidence that they have received your letter. If they ignore your request for validation, you can prove that they have received it.
AFS Acceptance should return with documents meant to prove that the debt belongs to you. Go through these carefully and note anything that seems off.
If you find any information that directly contradicts what you have regarding your debt, you can file a dispute with the three major credit bureaus. They will review and delete the entry themselves if they agree that AFS Acceptance has falsely reported your debt.
Make a Pay-For-Delete Agreement
If the debt turns out to be yours, you will need to make a pay-for-delete agreement with AFS Acceptance.
Debt collectors would never tell you this, but they are sometimes willing to settle for less than the full amount of a debt.
Contact AFS Acceptance and work out a deal with them. Offer to pay half of the debt in exchange for deletion on your credit report.
If they agree, get them to send you the agreement clearly stated in writing.
Once you get this agreement, make your first payment and check your credit report in 30 days.
The entry should be deleted from your report per your agreement. If it isn’t, contact AFS Acceptance and remind them of your agreement.
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Work with a Professional
If you’d rather not deal with AFS Acceptance directly, you could always hire a credit repair company to do this legwork for you.
A credit repair company can help you remove inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent, or damaging entries on your credit report.
This can help you rebuild a solid foundation on which to improve your credit score.
Some credit repair companies, however, are not worth the money. That is why it is important to work with a company that is trustworthy and effective.
We recommend Sky Blue because of this law firm’s experience and success in removing negative entries from credit reports.
With many years of experience, they have helped thousands of customers remove negative collection accounts and boost their credit score.
Ask Sky Blue for Help
Dealing with AFS Acceptance
Dealing with debt collectors is never convenient and often unpleasant.
However, there are ways to deal with them for good and remove the accounts from your credit report.
By following the four simple steps above, you can get AFS Acceptance off your back and clean up your credit report.
For more information on how to improve your credit score, check out some of our other popular articles for advice.
