Any advice on this would be appreciated. I don't want to mess up anymore than I already have. We have a Kohl's account that was opened 8/93. First delinquent in 9/03. In August of 2003, we settled the account for less than the full balance and have a letter from Kohl's indicating this. They have reported it over 90 days late since then as far as I can tell. In November 2006, they reported to TransUnion as a charge off. I am not sure how to go about stopping the continued reporting every month. From what I read on this board, the 7 year statute did not toll by us settling and it will run from the first delinquent payment but does the repeated reporting of late payments lower our score? And if so, what do I do? Any help you can give me would be wonderful or anywhere you can send me to read up on it. Thanks.
Yes, the continued reporting does indeed lower your score. I would suggest that you dispute the tradeline with the CRA's as simply inaccurate. A good premise would be inaccurate status. If they verify, which they will, and do not update or remove the inaccurate charge-off notation, you will have a FCRA violation to use as leverage. Now with that said, I've had some favorable movement by writing to Kohl's and explaining certain situations. They can be reasonable with paid or settled accounts and I've actually had them change some tradelines from paid charge-off's to paid as agreed with no negative notations. Consider communicating with them directly if disputing fails. Just tell them your story and that it has been paid, etc., etc., etc.
