I had a debt with a hospital reported by a CA. The hospital forgave the debt under the Charitable Care plan. I spoke with the CA on March 19, 2007. The gentleman told me he had the information in front of him from the hospital telling the agency to remove the account from the CRA (reason:account reported by mistake, or something similar). I called today, March 28, 2007 because the account has not been removed from my CRA's. The lady said that it could take up to 120 days for the update to show up. What?! Five days - I thought was enough time for them to update. Is there a law or regulation for me to look to?
And what if they told you it could take a year? Would you just accept it? They could do it today if they chose to, just like it only took a day to put it there. Dispute the error thru the CRA, in writing, sent CRRR, in order to make the CA obligated to remove the error immediately. The CA will then be notified of the dispute by the CRA, and should remove it within the CRA's dispute investgation period, which is 30 days, since the CA has already acknowledged that they have been instructed to do so by the OC. If instead, the CRA reports back that the CA "verified", then contact the CA, in writing, sent CRRR, and tell them they have 5 days to remove their erroneous reporting, or you will sue under FCRA. You are actually being nice in giving them that 5 days, as you could sue the moment you got their erroneous verification.
That's nonsense. I had a collection account removed in the time it took me to drive home from work. I was on the phone with them in the car and when I got home, that evening, I had an "update" e-mail waiting for me. You need to make some more noise as ontrack suggests.
ccbob is correct, if they WANT to, the entry can be removed almost immediately. I also have had this happen, with the account being removed while we were still on the phone. Sometimes you have to "push" to get things done. Realize that this activity is not going to be high on their priority list, they will make no money, and do not want to spend any time on it. They will do it when they get around to it. So, dispute with the CRAs, I would enclose a copy of the letter if you have one.
