I recently sent a goodwill letter to Hyundai Finance explaining a situation that had happened to me years ago. I asked as a courtesy that the update my credit reports positively or delete the tradeline altogether as I have paid them in full at this time. They were nice enough to reply with the following statement. "The disputed information is accurate as reported. We are prohibited by law from removing accurate information solely as a courtesy". First of all, is this a true statement that a creditor is prohibited from removing this information and if not, how should I proceed from here with them? I would appreciate some advice Greg
Yes, it's true. They're technically not allowed to remove accurate negative information. And since you've already paid the debt, you don't really have any leverage to negotiate much of anything at this point. You could always dispute something that's inaccurate about the debt through the CRAs in hopes that the creditor won't respond to the investigation now that they've got their money.
The FCRA says it's the duty of information furnishers to provide accurate information to the consumer reporting agencies. If they didn't have to report accurate info., credit reports and credit scores would be completely worthless as an assessment of risk. Now, as you well know, that doesn't mean that all creditors have to report to the credit bureaus or there aren't other ways to get what you want deleted from your credit reports. However, based upon the response the OP received from Hyundai after paying his account in full, I doubt they're going to be much help.
I have to agree with all you say including the response from Hyundai but I have yet to see a law that says that it is illegal for anyone to remove true and accurate information or cause it to be removed. If in fact it is illegal then what is the penalty for doing so? The reason correct and accurate information supposedly cannot be removed is not because of any law forbidding it's removal but because they have a contract with the credit bureaus agreeing that they won't do it or they violate their contract with the CRA and can lose their ability to report anything or get information from the credit bureaus.
I appreciate all of the discussion and feedback. I am wondering however if it is in fact against the law for the creditor to delete accurate info. How and why can they do this with no legal consequences to them when a pay for delete is agreed upon?
I haven't seen a law either that specifically says you can't remove true and accurate information, but I'm sure you're right about the agreement between CRAs and information providers. It only seems logical. To the OP - did you have a signed PFD agreement that the OC didn't carry out?
