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How to Remove DCM Services from Your Credit Report

Published: Feb 19, 2021 7 min read

Is DCM Services lowering your credit score? If DCM Services or DCM Services LLC has recently appeared on your credit report, it's probably to collect on a delinquent account.

Missed payments can add collections accounts to your credit report. When this happens, your credit score may suffer. Collections also result in frequent phone calls and letters, which can impact your daily life negatively. The guide below will teach you more about how collections agencies work and provide you with clear instructions to get a collections account deleted from your credit report.

How does DCM Services work?

While you may be questioning their legitimacy, DCM services is a credible debt collection agency. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the agency has a slightly different focus than other debt collectors. It primarily helps businesses collect on the delinquent accounts of the deceased by targeting their estates.

They collect on debts in numerous industries, such as:

  • Auto
  • Health care
  • Financial services
  • Retail
  • Telecommunications
  • Utilities

Lenders and service providers may call in third-party collections agencies when they’re unable to collect payments from consumers. So, if your loved one passed away while carrying debt in one of the industries above, DCM Services may contact you to settle the account.

When a debt enters the collections stage, a collections entry appears on the consumer’s credit report or, in this case, to the beneficiary of the deceased’s estate. Collections agencies often purchase debts from businesses at a majorly discounted price. In other cases, organizations hire them to handle the collections process for a fee.

Collections entries stay on your credit report for seven years, whether you pay the debt or not. That’s why you need to follow the steps below to ensure they get deleted ASAP. The agency may also send you letters and call you regularly until you make a satisfactory payment.

How to deal with DCM Services LLC

DCM Services has had a handful of complaints in recent years regarding its:

  • Reporting
  • Confidential information sharing
  • Billing and customer service

You can see these complaints on the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau websites.

In light of these issues, it’s important to educate yourself on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This law prevents debt collectors from treating you unethically or making baseless claims regarding debts. It sets clear boundaries for how and when debt collectors can contact you and requires them to provide adequate proof for their collection attempts.

This also allows you to halt the agency’s calls. You may send a letter by certified mail explaining that you know your rights under the FDCPA and wish to communicate in writing rather than over the phone. Doing so will give you documentation of all of your discussions with the agency and could streamline the process of getting them off your credit report.

You can reach DCM Services at the address below:

1550 American Blvd E
Suite 200
Bloomington, MN 55425

Phone: 1-877-326-8786

3 ways to remove DCM Services from your credit report

You may dread responding to DCM Services, but you have to in order to improve your credit. The steps below can help you get a collection agency removed from your credit report quickly and easily.

  • Ask for validation
  • Arrange a pay-for-delete agreement
  • Get professional help

1. Ask for validation

The FDCPA has your back once again, requiring collections agencies to provide evidence to validate their collection attempts. As long as you mail in a debt validation letter within 30 days of being contacted by the agency, they have to present you with documentation of your loved one’s account. If they are unable to do so, they will delete the entry from your credit report, and stop contacting you.

This strategy is worth a shot, whether you believe the debt is legitimate or not. Third-party debt collectors do not always have adequate documentation to follow through on their collections efforts.

2. Arrange a pay-for-delete agreement

Whether you found this article a little too late or you submitted a debt validation letter and the agency responded by providing you with proof of the debt, your next best bet is to arrange a pay-for-delete agreement.

If you pay a collections agency what you owe without an agreement in place, their calls will stop. However, the collection entry won’t disappear from your report. You must get the agency to agree in writing to have the entry removed when you make a satisfactory payment.

The agency might be willing to accept less than the amount owed to settle the account. A good starting point for your negotiation is 50% of the total. Once you and the agency agree on an amount and you submit your payment, your credit report should update fairly quickly.

Keep track by using a credit monitoring service, and if a month goes by and there’s still no change to your report, you should contact DCM again. Remind them of your agreement and ensure they report the payment as promised.

3. Get professional help

Confronting debt collectors about your own debt is challenging enough. Facing them regarding your deceased loved one can be even more emotionally taxing.

Many consumers turn to credit repair companies, trusting them to do the heavy lifting. A credit repair company can dispute the debt, negotiate payment and get your credit score back on track.

But their services don't stop there. Credit repair specialists will take a look at your entire credit report, analyzing it for inaccuracies and pinpointing its biggest issues. They'll help you come up with a plan to improve your overall score and bounce back from credit problems like:

  • Bankruptcy
  • Liens
  • Judgments
  • Inaccurate hard inquiries
  • Repossessions
  • Identity fraud

Consider reaching out to one of the best credit repair companies today to get started.

Update: This article has been updated to reflect current contact information for DCM Services.

Disclaimer: This story was originally published on February 19, 2021, on BetterCreditBlog.org. To find the most relevant information concerning collections or credit card inquiries, please visit: https://money.com/how-to-remove-collections-from-credit-report/ or https://money.com/get-items-removed-from-credit-report/