Collection accounts are typically seriously past due accounts that have been assigned to an attorney or collection agency. A collection agency is usually hired after a company has made multiple attempts to collect money that they believe is owed to them. Collection accounts can remain on your credit report for 7 years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the collection (the original delinquency date). The following techniques will teach you how to remove collections from your credit reports. What the Credit Bureaus Don't Want You to Know: 1. A study released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in June 2004 found that 79% of the consumer credit reports surveyed contained some kind of error or mistake. 2. Once you dispute an account, it must be proven or it cannot remain on your report. If the credit bureau cannot verify the item when investigated, it must be removed from your file whether or not it's true. 3. Every negative item on your report can be denied or challenged at any time. The credit bureau must re-investigate every time it is challenged and if the item cannot be verified within a "reasonable amount of time", it must be removed from the file. 4. Many times the creditor does not re-verify in time or the credit bureau is busy and does not handle your dispute properly. It must then be deleted. 5. The older an item, the more difficult it is to verify. Creditors seldom keep records for longer than a couple years. Steps to Repair Your Credit: 1. Obtain your three credit reports. 2. Review the reports and locate the collection accounts. 3. Dispute the collection accounts with the credit bureaus. Removing collections can be difficult, but with a little persistence and know-how they can definitely be removed from your credit report.