How to Remove Caine & Weiner from Your Credit Report

You may be able to remove Caine & Weiner from your credit report. If the information on your credit report is inaccurate, fraudulent or in error, you can have it removed by contacting the company and credit bureaus. If the information appears on your report because it’s accurate, you may be able to remove it with a pay-for-delete.

Caine & Weiner is an accounts receivable company, also known as a debt collector. If Caine & Weiner appears on your credit report, they’ve likely purchased a debt that you owe to the original creditor, like your credit card company.

In this article, we go over ways to remove Caine & Weiner from your credit report and how to deal with debt collection in a way that minimizes the negative impact on your credit score.

What is Caine & Weiner?

Caine & Weiner is a debt collection agency performing both first- and third-party debt collection.^[1] You might be contacted by Caine & Weiner or see them appear on your credit report because they purchased a debt you owed to another business, a business that charged off your debt because it was delinquent.

If Caine & Weiner tries to collect a debt from you, the company may contact you demanding payment by calling, sending you letters, emailing or sending text messages in an attempt to get you to pay.^[2]

You can request the information they have about the debt you owe by contacting them in the following ways:

• Website: www.caine-weiner.com
• Phone number: +1-818-902-4255
• Address: Caine & Weiner Company, INC, 5805 Sepulveda Blvd., 4th Floor, Sherman Oaks, CA 91411, USA

Is Caine & Weiner a legitimate business?

When you see an unfamiliar name on your credit report or get a phone call from a company that’s asking you for money, you may wonder whether the company and the phone number calling you is a scam, but Caine & Weiner is a legitimate collection agency. Caine & Weiner appears on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and is BBB-accredited with a B rating.^[3]

A BBB-accredited business refers to the BBB making a determination that a business has met certain standards for accreditation, including making a good faith effort to find a solution to consumer complaints. However, consumer complaints are not factored into the accreditation.^[4]

Because Caine & Weiner is a collection agency, it must follow federal law for debt collection established under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). If debt collectors call or engage you in phone conversations repeatedly for the purpose of annoying, abusing or harassing you, this violates your rights under the FDCPA. In addition, under this federal law, the company is not allowed to falsely represent themselves by claiming to be an attorney and cannot make threats or use profane language.^[2]

Will Caine & Weiner sue or garnish your wages?

If Caine & Weiner sues you in court and receives a court judgment against you for the debt you owe, it may be able to legally garnish wages or bank accounts. Keep in mind that federal law protects some income against garnishment, such as federal benefits like Social Security and VA benefits, plus states vary in their laws regarding wage garnishments.^[5]

You may be able to negotiate with a debt collector before your situation escalates to a lawsuit. If they do attempt to sue you, however, find an attorney or law firm specializing in debt collections to represent you and give you legal advice.^[6]

How can I remove Caine & Weiner from my credit report?

If your debt was charged off by the original creditor and sold to Caine & Weiner, you likely can’t remove it from your credit report unless it was in error, fraudulent or otherwise inaccurate, unless you request a pay for delete or goodwill removal. Even if you negotiate a pay-for-delete with the collection agency, the delinquent account with your original creditor may stay on your credit report.

Keep in mind that Caine & Weiner can continue to pursue you for the debt even though the information fell off your credit report. Just because it falls off your report doesn’t change the fact that you owe the debt and can be pursued for it. Debt collectors do have a limited amount of time to sue you to collect on a debt and that time period varies by state. If you believe the statute of limitations has run out on the debt and it has become “time barred”, be sure to contact an attorney specializing in debt collections to assist you.^[2]

Request debt validation

The debt collector has to give you a validation of the debt during the first phone call with you or provide the validation in writing within five days of having contacted you. They have to tell you:

• How much you owe
• The name of the creditor you owe the debt to
• How to get the name of the original creditor
• What to do if you don’t think the debt is yours
  ^[2]

If you don’t think the debt is truly yours. Write a debt validation letter within 30 days of the first collection effort. This standard letter asks the debt collector to provide proof that you actually owe the money and can help verify the debt amount and other details of the debt.

Caine & Weiner must provide you with this information under the FDCPA. Once you receive the information, you can carefully review to see whether the information is accurate. Copy down any errors you find.^[2]

Obtain copies of your credit report

Once you have the information from Caine & Weiner, you should also check your credit reports to find which bureaus the debt was reported to and verify whether the collection account and debt is accurate. You can request one free copy of your credit report from each bureau every 12 months through AnnualCreditReport.com. You can also request a credit report from each individual bureau (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) for which you may pay a small fee.

If the debt is inaccurate, file a dispute

If you received validation information from Caine & Weiner and find that some or all of the information is incorrect — for example, the debt amount is different or it belongs to someone else — the next step is to file a dispute. You can file disputes with the three major credit bureaus and with the collection agency.

You can dispute the debt with both Caine & Weiner and the credit bureaus to get the inaccurate item removed and fix the error on your credit reports. File a dispute with the three major credit bureaus and Caine & Weiner and ask them to remove the inaccurate item from your credit report.^[2]

To file a dispute with the credit bureaus, contact them in writing with documentation that supports your claim.^[7] You’ll want to include:

• Your contact information
• Your credit report confirmation number, if available
• An explanation of why you’re disputing the information
• A list that clearly identifies each piece of information you’re disputing
• A request that the information be corrected or removed
• A copy of the portion of your credit report that contains the disputed items
• Any other supporting documentation (for example, if you paid a debt but it’s still showing on your credit report, a receipt of that payment)

To file a dispute with the collection agency, send a letter within 30 days of the agency’s first contact. Once the agency receives your letter, it must stop trying to collect on the debt until you receive written verification of your debt, like a copy of the bill from the original creditor.^[2]

If the debt is accurate, negotiate a settlement, a pay for delete or goodwill removal

If the validation letter does prove that you owe the debt listed, you can offer to negotiate a settlement or installment plan to close the collection account. Still, closing a collection account through a negotiated settlement may be better than leaving it unpaid and open, just waiting for it to drop off your credit record.

Depending on how old your debt is, you may want to speak to an attorney specializing in debt collections or a non-profit credit counselor, as well as seek out your state’s statute of limitations on debt. Although debt doesn’t go away until it is paid, each state has its own laws regarding how long you can be sued over debt. Because each state is different and how you act can affect the statute of limitations, an attorney who specializes in collections can help you navigate the process.^[2]

Because only inaccuracies can be disputed and removed, the only options for removing accurate debt from your credit report is to negotiate a pay for delete or request a goodwill removal. While you may negotiate one of these successfully, bear in mind that debt collectors as data furnishers under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) are obligated to report accurate debts. Even if they agree to a pay for delete or goodwill deletion, they do not have to follow through with it.

Pay for delete

A pay for delete refers to asking the collection agency to remove the account from your credit report if you pay off some or all of the debt. Sometimes debt collectors may deny your request. If Caine & Weiner does agree to a pay for delete, they can still take your money but refuse to remove the account from your credit report, which is why you need to request the agreement to remove the account in writing. Even if Caine & Weiner follows through with the removal, it cannot remove the negative information listed from the original creditor.^[8]

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) discourages the pay-for-delete strategy because only inaccurate or incomplete entries are meant to be removed from a consumer’s credit report.^[8]

Goodwill removal

Another way to try and remove Caine & Weiner from your credit score is with a goodwill letter. The letter explains why the debt occurred and provides proof that this was an extenuating circumstance to your otherwise consistent payment history. For example, you lost your job or had a medical emergency.^[9]

Like a pay for delete, a goodwill letter is not an official strategy and is not guaranteed to work. The Federal Trade Commission states that if negative information is accurate, it will simply take time to go away.^[2]

Your rights when dealing with collection agencies?

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that states what debt collectors can do when collecting on certain kinds of debt.^[10]

If your consumer rights have been violated, you can file a complaint against the collection agency through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).^[11]

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act outlines what specifically debt collectors cannot, can and must do, which we outline in the following sections.

Debt collectors cannot:

• Contact you at work, before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m in your time zone or if you’re clearly working with an attorney
• Threaten or harass you or your family members
• Claim you owe more than you do
• Publicly reveal how much you owe, or publish a list of debtors
• Falsely represent themselves
• Contact you if you’ve written to them to stop

Debt collectors can:

• Send you letters, emails or text messages
• Contact you between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in your time zone
• Contact you to confirm there will be no further contact
• Contact you to notify you of their intent to take legal action
• Contact you concerning any debt

Debt collectors must:

• Stop contacting you if you’ve asked them in writing to stop
• Talk with your attorney if you’ve retained one
• Provide you with a debt validation letter

How does Caine & Weiner impact my credit?

Having Caine & Weiner on your credit report negatively impacts your credit score because a collection account remains on your credit report for seven years.^[12] This negative mark impacts the most important credit score factor your payment history, which makes up 35% of your score.^[13] Having a collections debt on your credit report signals to potential lenders that you may not reliably pay back what you borrow.

Know your rights

Dealing with debt collection can be scary. It’s important, however, not to get too intimidated and to make sure that you know and can exercise your rights. If a collection agency is mistreating you, act as soon as possible to protect yourself by reporting the mistreatment. If a business or collection agency has reported inaccuracies to credit bureaus, take steps to get it corrected. However, if you have a valid debt, working or negotiating with the collection service and original creditor, can help you resolve your debt more easily.

Disclaimer: FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Issac Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Sources

1. Caine & Weiner. “Caine & Weiner,” https://www.caine-weiner.com/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
2. Federal Trade Commission. “Debt Collection FAQs,” https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/debt-collection-faqs. Accessed August 7, 2022.
3. Better Business Bureau. “Caine & Weiner,” https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/sherman-oaks/profile/collection-systems/caine-weiner-1216-85000313. Accessed August 7, 2022.
4. Better Business Bureau. “Exclusive Programs and Services,” https://www.bbb.org/get-accredited. Accessed October 28, 2022.
5. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Can a debt collector garnish my bank account or my wages?” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/can-a-debt-collector-garnish-my-bank-account-or-my-wages-en-1439/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
6. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “How do I find a lawyer or attorney to represent me in a lawsuit by a creditor or debt collector?” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-find-a-lawyer-or-attorney-to-represent-me-in-a-lawsuit-by-a-creditor-or-debt-collector-en-1433/. Accessed October 28, 2022..
7. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “How do I dispute an error on my credit report?” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-dispute-an-error-on-my-credit-report-en-314/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
8. Forbes. “Pay For Delete: Learn About This Collection Removal Strategy,” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-score/pay-for-delete/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
9. Credit Karma. “Goodwill letters: What you need to know.” https://www.creditkarma.com/advice/i/goodwill-letter. Accessed October 21, 2022.
10. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Are there laws that limit what debt collectors can say or do?” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/are-there-laws-that-limit-what-debt-collectors-can-say-or-do-en-329/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
11. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Understand how the CFPB’s Debt Collection Rule impacts you,” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/. Accessed August 7, 2022.
12. FICO®. “How Do Collections Affect Your Credit?” https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/faq/negative-reasons/should-i-pay-my-collections. Accessed August 7, 2022.
13. FICO®. “How Payment History Impacts Your Credit Score,” https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/credit-scores/payment-history. Accessed August 7, 2022.

About the author

Ana Gonzalez-Ribeiro, MBA, AFC® is an Accredited Financial Counselor® and a Bilingual Personal Finance Writer and Educator dedicated to helping populations that need financial literacy and counseling. Her informative articles have been published in various news outlets and websites including Huffington Post, Fidelity, Fox Business News, MSN and Yahoo Finance. She also founded the personal financial and motivational site www.AcetheJourney.com and translated into Spanish the book, Financial Advice for Blue Collar America by Kathryn B. Hauer, CFP. Ana teaches Spanish or English personal finance courses on behalf of the W!SE (Working In Support of Education) program has taught workshops for nonprofits in NYC.

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