Here's the situation: I had a National City account with a long standing payment history. Then I went late on it several months before we worked out a deal where I would pay the entire amount over 5 years with no interest. Shortly thereafter, National City sold the account to First Niagara and FN has been honoring the same deal.

I disputed the National City account with with Equifax and I got an email link to where I can review the status of the dispute. But when I go in there and look at the account summaries, it shows that they are investigating the FIRST NIAGARA account and not the National City account. The National City account is still sitting there as a negative account and the First Niagara account is showing that I've always paid on time. Not only that, the First Niagara account is showing that I've paid on time all the way back to 2003 (even though the account was only sold to them a few months ago). I most definitely do NOT want them to investigate this and "fix" this positive tradeline when I did not ask them to.

Any advice on how to proceed?

Try disputing as a duplicate account.and have them remove National city account.

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jjgross* The answer my friend is written on the wind

even though there wasn't a lot of discussion for it in the first place: I sent a letter to Equifax informing them that they were investigating the wrong account. What they did, basically, was start a brand new investigation--they are STILL investigating the old account, which is pending, AND they are giving themselves 30 days from the date they received my 2nd letter to investigate the account I had originally asked them to verify.

Thoughts on this? How much traction does anybody think I could get in insisting they still complete their investigation within the ORIGINAL 30 days or delete?

I'm not sure that you'll have much traction. I don't mean to sound like a pessimist, but CRAs basically have all-encompassing power over consumers.

In theory, you could file a lawsuit for violations of the FCRA (failure to investigate your claim). But the CRA would just claim they made a "bona fide" error and use that as their defense. You'd get what you want -- the correct account investigated -- but at a considerable cost.

The only suggestion I can offer -- and it seems you've already discovered this -- is to wait 45-60 days between communications with the CRAs. When you send them a letter, they see it as "providing additional information", and that extends their time limit.

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I am not a lawyer, nor am I an "expert" or "authority" on anything. This post reflects my opinion only, and may be wrong or inappropriate. Always consult a legal professional for guidance.

Should I have just waited for them to complete their investigation and verify the wrong account and then sent another letter saying they failed to investigate the account I asked about and must, therefore, delete it?

I think that would be a sound approach. Fixing errors on your credit report takes lots of time and patience.

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I am not a lawyer, nor am I an "expert" or "authority" on anything. This post reflects my opinion only, and may be wrong or inappropriate. Always consult a legal professional for guidance.

And, it is very frustrating.