D&A Services on Your Credit Report? Fight Back and Win

If D&A Services is calling you, sending you letters, or contacting you in any other way, it’s important that you’re proactive in dealing with them. A mistake could affect your credit, or they might take further action if you don’t handle the situation. 

Dealing with debt collection companies like this one is stressful and can be intimidating, but you have rights and options available, whether you owe a debt or it’s an error. 

The following guides you through what to know about D&A Services and the steps to take if they contact you.

Why Is D&A Services Calling Me?

If you’re getting calls from D&A Services, the company is trying to collect a debt. D&A is a third-party collections company. They don’t originate accounts or loans. 

Companies D&A Collects For

As a third-party debt collector, D&A works for businesses in the following industries:

• Student loans
• Credit cards
• Medical debt
• Car loans
• Small businesses
• Debt settlement
• Commercial debt
• Mortgages
• Court judgments

Is D&A Services Legitimate?

D&A Services is not a scam. They are a real company, and they are licensed and bonded as debt collectors. As is true with other debt collectors, D&A Services is required to follow certain federal laws, like the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  

Another federal law applicable to debt collectors is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

D&A Services and the FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a national law relating to consumer financial records and reporting. This law determines how your information can be collected and reported as a consumer, and it does apply to D&A Services.

This protection law requires that the three main credit bureaus in the U.S. are accurate and transparent in their collection of credit information. The three credit bureaus are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

Because of the FCRA, when negative credit information ages, it will eventually fall off your report. There are limits where credit rating agencies have to take negative information off credit files after seven years. It can range from 7 to 10 years for bankruptcies, based on the type of bankruptcy.

As part of the FCRA, you have the right to dispute errors on your credit report if you find any. Reasons that information could be inaccurate include:

• Reporting old information

Creditors, debt collectors, and credit reporting agencies are required to keep information current under federal law. Errors that don’t comply with the FCRA could include old debts reported as new, reporting accounts as active when they were voluntarily closed, or reporting information that’s more than seven years old.

• Inaccurate information

An original creditor or debt collector can’t report wrong information, but it happens anyway. Wrong information can include listing you as an account debtor, but you were just an authorized user, and incorrect balance or payment information.

• Mixed files

Credit bureaus, creditors, or debt collectors might mix your personal and financial information with someone else’s. This is most common if you have a name similar to another person’s or your Social Security numbers are close.

When D&A Services contacts you because of the FCRA, they also have to be transparent about your debt and any related information. 

Debt collectors must clarify the procedures to dispute a debt, whether partially or all of it. 

You can contact an FCRA attorney if you’ve heard from D&A Services, and they can get more information about the debt, review your case and submit a dispute on your behalf. 

If you submit a dispute to D&A Services, they must investigate it unless it’s considered frivolous. They also have to provide you with their findings and either delete or correct wrong, unverifiable, or incomplete information within 30-45 days after they get your dispute notice.

Violations of the FCRA related to disputes would include:

• Not letting all the credit reporting agencies where negative information is listed know you’re disputing it.
• Failing to provide the corrected information to credit reporting agencies after they investigate your dispute.
• Not conducting an internal investigation within 30-45 days.
• Failing to provide you with the procedures to report identity theft or a written dispute.
• Not informing you of the results of the internal investigation within five days of completing it.

If you believe that D&A Services hasn’t been compliant with the FCRA, talking to a consumer protection attorney can be worthwhile.

How to Stop Calls From D&A Services

If you dispute a debt with D&A Services for any reason, they’re supposed to stop all collection activities during that time. 

Even if you legitimately owe a debt that D&A Services is contacting you about, because of the rules of the FDCPA, a company can’t:

• Discuss the details of your debt with friends, family, or coworkers.
• Keep contacting you at work after you’ve requested they don’t.
• Be vague or misleading.
• Use harassment or threats to try and get payment.
• Contact you at intentionally inconvenient times, like late at night.

You can send a letter to the company even when you owe a debt asking them to stop contacting you, and they have to comply. They can still take legal action if you don’t pay the debt.

Getting D&A Services Off Your Credit Report

If you’ve taken steps to validate your debt with D&A Services and then gone through the dispute process, you might still have a collections account with them listed on your credit report. Unfortunately, this happens often despite federal laws protecting consumers and outlining dispute and removal procedures.

If you’re struggling to deal with D&A Services in any way, an FCRA attorney can help.

Fair Credit is a team of consumer protection attorneys. We’re legal advocates focusing on the FCRA. Contact us for a free case review and to see how we can help you as you deal with this debt collection agency.