I just got off the phone with an Equifax rep. She stated correctly that the DOLA cannot be changed when a CA buys a debt. In my case, PHEAA changed the DOLA on my student loan to 3/01 (the month it defaulted). The original DOLA (placed on my report by Penn Savings) was 6/96. She told me that PHEAA was not allowed to do this. I followed up by asking if it was Equifax's policy to accept info from creditors even though Equifax knows it's incorrect. Her answer: "Unfortunately, yes. I'm not supposed to say that or I could lose my job. If the creditor says it is accurate, we accept it. You as a consumer can fight the creditor on it." She was real nice and real helpful but I couldn't believe that answer!!! I'll be receiving my rehab papers this week - finally! So, I'm not gonna worry about it but the answer stunned me!
It's actually typical of what I expect to hear. Pretty sad. Did you by chance ask about the inquiries falling off?
That's about the same thing as "Acct Disputed". The CRA says that they more or less celieve the CA because they are a CA. Moronic and illegal, if you ask me. Charlie
We all knew that this is basically how they operate but I was stunnned to hear a rep actually admit to it! I didn't even think to ask about the inquiries at that point.
I can believe it. I worked for an HMO 6+ years ago, and a few of us used to tell patients as well as providers what they need to do to make sure coverage isn't denied. They loved us and some people wouldn't talk to anyone but us. Once the recording system was installed "to ensure quality service" (yeah, right Big Brother), they started pulling the plug on that. They said to tell patients to appeal (designed to cut down time on the phone, buy the company more time and discourage people from following through), and to tell providers to call Provider Relations (30min+ wait time) or Utilization Management (the pre-authorization people, 45min+ wait time) Reasoning: we couldn't give out that info to patients because we weren't the claims dept. Well the claims dept didn't take calls from members, and we were routinely telling the claims dept, no, you shouldn't deny this or that! And we weren't supposed to tell providers what's what even though we had copies of their gag order...um, I mean "Provider Agreements".
I was basically told the same thing by Equifax a couple of days regarding my address changes. I asked the rep why they would CONSISTENTLY report this bad info even though they knew it was incorrect. She said as long as a creditor is reporting it, it goes on the report, and all I could do was take it up with the creditor. I am so fed up with Equisux
