How to Remove Hunter Warfield from Your Credit Report

How to Remove First Financial Asset Management from Your Credit Report

If Hunter Warfield, Inc., has appeared on your credit report, you probably have an old debt. Hunter Warfield probably bought the old debt from your original creditor. Now this Tampa, Florida-based debt collector wants you to pay.

Or, Hunter Warfield could have received your name and contact information by mistake when it bought a bundle of old accounts from an apartment complex you once lived in.

Either way, a collections account wreaks havoc on your credit report, damaging your credit score for up to seven years.

Below you’ll find our guide to removing Hunter Warfield from your credit report and getting your credit score back on track.

What is Hunter Warfield?

Hunter Warfield buys a variety of debt including medical debt, credit card debt, unpaid utilities payments, and even property management debt, from creditors. This agency may appear as ‘hwarfield’ on your credit report.

When it buys old debt, this third-party debt collection agency pays a low rate — pennies or nickels on the dollar. When you pay Hunter Warfield, the agency makes a profit.

Every penny you pay, in addition to Hunter Warfield’s debt-purchase price, goes directly onto the agency’s bottom line.

If Hunter Warfield’s on your credit report, you’ve probably already heard from one of its agents. This agency is known for incessant telephone calls which may include threats and abusive language. This is one reason so many people dread working with collection agencies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has received nearly 2,000 complaints about Hunter Warfield, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received more than 500.

Most of these complaints cite harassment, inaccurate reporting, and failure to validate debts.

Ways to Remove Hunter Warfield from Your Credit Report

The best way to get your credit score back on track is to remove negative entries from your credit report.

A collections account could pull down your credit score by as much as 100 points.

If you follow our directions quickly and thoroughly, you may be able to remove Hunter Warfield’s negative credit items by paying nothing.

Or, if you do owe some money, you could remove this negative credit mark by paying just a fraction of the balance due.

Here’s what to do:

• Get Everything in Writing
• Send a Debt Validation Letter
• Negotiate a Settlement
• Seek Professional Help

Get Everything in Writing

Writing letters and mailing them at the post office feels so 20th century — or even 19th century! It seems especially strange to stand in line at a post office with a 21st-century smartphone in your pocket that could communicate instantly with anyone in the world.

Nevertheless, you should communicate only through letters when you’re dealing with Hunter Warfield. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives you the right to choose how Hunter Warfield communicates with you. So you should also insist the agency communicate with you only through written letters.

Why? Because when you talk to a debt collector over the phone and come to an agreement, you may discover debt collectors have really bad memories. Once you’ve held up your end of the bargain and made your payments, the collections agency may forget about its part of the deal.

Unless you have the agreement in writing, you won’t be able to jog the agent’s memory. Essentially, it’s your word against theirs.

Hunter Warfield Collections doesn’t earn one of the highest recovery rates in the business by maintaining a respectful approach to revenue recovery. If your agent insists on making phone calls, inform the agency it is violating the FDCPA and hang up.

Hang on to every piece of communication that you receive from Hunter Warfield. This will serve as evidence as you enter into your negotiation process. It will also serve as a tool to prevent additional harassment; an agent will not break the law in a letter you could forward to the CFPB.

Send a Debt Validation Letter

The next step in the process is to send a debt validation letter to Hunter Warfield.

Debt collectors obtain inaccurate debt all the time. It’s just part of the business model. They aren’t all that worried about accuracy. They bought the debt and your payment will translate into profit.

Sadly, a lot of consumers don’t figure out they never owed the debt to begin with. These consumers will pay an alleged debt to stop the harassing phone calls.

But the FDCPA gives you the right to verify an alleged debt actually belongs to you. This ensures a third-party collection agency has accurate information. If the debt isn’t yours, it is dismissed, and you won’t have to pay a dime — and Hunter Warfield will have to remove negative credit items within 30 days.

Do not ignore Hunter Warfield when they first contact you. This will only make things worse. Once Hunter Warfield makes first contact with you, you have only 30 days to send a debt validation letter. If you wait longer than that, they may not respond to you.

Here’s a sample of a debt validation letter.

When you send your debt validation letter, be sure to request a return receipt. This is how you can verify the agency has received your letter. You should hear back in about 30 days with documents and proof the debt is yours.

If Hunter Warfield can’t validate your debt, they are required to contact all three major credit bureaus and remove the debt. Problem solved.

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Negotiate a Payment Plan

If Hunter Warfield does confirm the debt is yours, your next step will be to negotiate a settlement with the agency.

You should negotiate a pay-for-delete settlement. The collection agency should agree to stop reporting your debt to the three major credit bureaus in exchange for your payment on the debt.

Notice we did not say “full payment.” Hunter Warfield will not volunteer this information, but the agency will almost always accept less than the full amount. Like we said above, any amount you pay pads the company’s bottom line.

We recommend offering to pay half the debt in exchange for a deletion. Work from there to come up with an arrangement both parties will accept. Once the details are settled, request that Hunter Warfield provide the official agreement in writing. Do not make a single payment until you receive this agreement in the mail.

Once the contract arrives, make your first payment to Hunter Warfield. After 30 days, check your credit report with all three major credit bureaus. You should notice that Hunter Warfield’s collection entry is removed from your report. If it is still there, reach out to Hunter Warfield and remind them of your agreement.

Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Report

Seek Professional Help

The steps above will work, Your financial life could be on the mend within a couple months. But you’ll have to be persistent, thorough, and determined. When you have a job, a family, and other everyday concerns, finding the time to write and mail letters and follow up with the credit bureaus adds a lot of stress.

If you’d rather not deal with Hunter Warfield directly, you could always hire a credit repair company to do this legwork for you.

We recommend Credit Saint or Lexington Law because of their experience and success in removing negative entries from credit reports.

They won’t do anything you couldn’t do yourself. But since these credit repair companies deal with revenue recovery firms every day, they can get results more quickly and efficiently.

You’ll have to pay a monthly fee plus a one-time set-up fee. Often, a consumer spends at least $500 to $600 over the course of four months to repair a credit score.

For more advice on how to improve your credit, be sure to check out some of our popular articles. With the right steps and some time, you’ll have your score back on track.

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Does the Law Protect My Rights?

Debt collectors would rather you not know about your rights. When you have a shaky knowledge of your rights, you’re more likely to respond to your fear with immediate payment.

If your anxiety doesn’t prompt you to pay right away, debt collectors will keep calling. Every time you pick up your phone, you see missed calls from debt collectors.

When you don’t have the money to pay — either because the amount due is overwhelming or because you’re out of work because of the Covid-19 pandemic — you may want to ignore the calls until they go away.

Don’t do this. You have consumer rights that give you a chance to take control of the situation. These laws exist to make sure you don’t have to endure abuse, threats, and fear-based tactics.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that prevents debt collectors from:

• Contacting you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
• Continuing to call you after you specify that they stop.
• Harassing you or anyone else in regard to the debt.
• Using abusive, aggressive, or profane language.
• Misrepresenting themselves or information regarding your debt.
• Ignoring a request for debt validation requested within the first 30 days.

Before dealing with Hunter Warfield or any other debt collection agency, understand your rights under the FDCPA. Arming yourself with knowledge of the law is the best way to protect yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions about Hunter Warfield

We’ve covered the basics of dealing with Hunter Warfield, but here is some other helpful information based on questions we receive regularly about revenue recovery services.

How do I Contact Hunter Warfield?

By industry standards, Hunter Warfield has a helpful and intuitive website. But, once again, you should deal with this agency only in writing.

• Address: 4620 Woodland Corporate Blvd., Tampa, FL 33614.
• Web site: www.hunterwarfield.com
• Phone number: 888-486-8927

Is Hunter Warfield a Scam?

No, Hunter Warfield, Inc., is a legit debt collection agency partnering with apartment complexes, property management companies, medical clinics, credit card lenders, public utilities, and even funeral homes to collect old debts.

If you’re hearing from Hunter Warfield the agency thinks you owe it money, and it will hurt your credit score, limiting your chances of getting low interest rates on loans. Low credit scores even raise car insurance rates in most states.

How Did Hunter Warfield Get My Phone Number?

Hunter Warfield bought your contact information when it bought your old debt. The company has a right to call you once a day unless you request that it stop. The agency’s site, hunterwarfield.com, has a “Stop Calling” button but we still recommend writing a letter to make your request official.

Can Hunter Warfield Collections Sue Me?

Yes, any creditor can sue you in civil court for collection of the debt. If your debt is older than your state’s statute of limitations on debt, the civil lawsuit should be dismissed immediately.

Even if the debt is too old for a lawsuit, it will still harm your credit score. Unpaid debt remains on your credit report for seven years.

Can I Be Prosecuted Because of Old Debt?

No matter what a third-party collection agency says, you will not be arrested or charged in the criminal court system because of unpaid consumer debt. Aggressive debt collectors may imply you’ll suffer these sorts of consequences.

That’s why you should know your rights before discussing anything with a debt collector. Fear of being arrested or even visited at home or at work inspires some consumers to make immediate payments. Often, these payments do not remove the negative items from your credit score.

Never make any payments to a collection agency until you have an agreement in writing stating that your payment will remove the negative marks from your credit history.

Where Can I Complain About Hunter Warfield?

Hunter Warfield is not accredited by the BBB but you could still complain on the BBB’s Hunter Warfield page. For better results, file a complaint with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which enforces the FDCPA and other laws.

If you believe the debt collector has violated the FDCPA, the collections agency could be fined $1,000 per violation.

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