You bet your ass, they are! Let me explain. A few months ago a very old payday loan showed up on my Transunion credit report and in my mind, I’m thinking, no problem. I’ll just dispute it and make it disappear like magic just like I always do. But this time it didn’t work. Two months later I disputed it again but the credit bureau refused to remove it.
Suddenly, I realized that I had been paying $9.95 a month since 1999 for a prepaid legal service called ARAG. Now, ARAG has helped me in the past, most notably when a furniture company sued me unsuccessfully because ARAG Legal Services told me step by step what to do to defend myself and the case was dismissed less than 30 days after answering the summons.
Fast forward to today. I reached out to ARAG and requested that they send out a debt validation letter to the collection agency on my behalf and within a week I received a notification from Credit Karma informing me that the payday loan collection account had been removed! ARAG came through for me again!
In short, if you find yourself in similar situations every few months while you work on restoring your credit, I suggest that you arm yourself with ARAG or a similar company to help defend you in your time of need. Most prepaid legal services will provide the first hour at no charge. I’ve used ARAG at least 4 times and have never paid a cent beyond the $9.95 monthly fee.
Join the fight to stop bill collector harassment…Please “SHARE” this page!!!