I'm sure you all have heard the story before, my husband and I both lost good paying jobs in 1992 and went into debt with several credit cards. In the years since, we've paid off, settled or sent into limbo all of these debts - except for one account still remaining on our credit reports. In June 2001, we finally took our heads out of the sand and educated ourselves on the FCRA and actually looked at our credit reports. To my surprise, one account still remained on my report. The account was last used for credit card purchases on 12/92, became 60+ on 1/93, account revoked on 4/93, and finally "Closed by Creditor" on 5/94. Which it apparently has remained, delinquent, for all these years. I frist disputed it with Equifax, who sent me back a letter stating the "date of last activity" was 1999. This was actually a status report date. I called Equifax and was interrupted by the "rep" with "DOLA" whenever I tried to explain the "commencement of delinquency" to her. I contacted the creditor and even offered to settle if they would report the account accurately and remove, and they stated they would list the account as "settled for half" and remain on report. On 10/2001, the creditor now reports it as a charge-off with a "DOLA" of 2/2001. I have sent 6 (joint account) dispute letters to all three CRA's disputing the original date of delinquency. Great, right? Except that this village idiot notices on Friday, after approximately 3 weeks into dispute process, that the account# was changed on the account when the creditor reported it as a charge-off. I, of course, disputed the account with the original acct#. My question is will this affect my dispute process? And is it time to quit this cat and mouse game and turn it over to a attorney? Any input greatly appreciated... I frist disputed
Although you already have them in violations, I would start the whole dispute process over again. validation, estoppel and then go to a good attorney. I can recommend several good ones to you to pick from but I would try to catch them in new violations first because the more vioations you can catch them in the better.
Thanks Bill. You're right, of course, I need to create a good paper trail. It's just so frustrating that we have to play these games, not to mention a great deal of time and energy in dealing with the CRA's when they are in clear noncompliance with the FCRA. There has got to be a better system of credit reporting as the CRA's are in a real conflict of interest while reporting on consumers while they are basically representing the creditors.
Make a copy of the document in the URL below and mail it with your dispute. Make sure you note the enclosure in your correspondence. http://www.cardreport.com/laws/fcra/ftc-opinion/kosmerl.html Politely challenge the entry as illegal under the 7-year reporting period. Tell them you believe either the creditor input the account number incorrectly, causing a stale account to stay after seven years, or that the account number was changed deliberately so the creditor could kite itself another seven years. Make it perfectly clear that, regardless of the reason this account continues to appear on your report, it is there illegally. Mention that you are being denied credit because of the illegal entry or are being forced to pay higher rates. Make it absolutely clear you are suffering damages and tell them that their CSRs have blown you off when you explained patiently and reasonably to them that the entry is on the report illegally. CC your state attorney general and ask for an official complaint form. Make sure you tell the bureaus that you're getting the AG involved. Don't accept a "no" from the bureaus or any more incompetence. Tell them in plain English that the account is more than seven years old.
These are not the only ways in which the CRAs are goofing up either. They are starting to take some outrageously hard line stances against consumers if they suspect that they may be using a credit repair firm. They seem to think that they have some right or authority to be the police of the credit industry. If we could buy the knotheads for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth we could feed the world on caviar until kingdom come and still not put a dent in the profits. If they suspect that a consumer is using a credit repair firm they often send that person a bombastic letter demanding to know if they are using a credit repair firm, if so how much they are paying the firm, if they have any complaints about the service received, and even go so far as to ask if the consumer would like to file charges against the credit repair organization they must be using. I think that this constitutes an illegal attempt to interfere with a person's constitutional right to freely contract as guaranteed under Article I of the Constitution. I have a good friend of mine in Huntsville, Alabama who is a quite famous attorney due to his expertise in Constitutional law. He is out of pocket on vacation right now but he will be a guest speaker at Freedom Hall in Marland, Oklahoma this coming weekend so I will discuss this issue with him and see if we can't put together a solid case against at least one if not all of the credit bureaus on this issue. If anybody could make it stick, Larry would be the one to take them on and put a stop to this nonsense. Maybe I'm all wet, but I will surely find out this coming weekend. Next thing we know they will be trying to shut this forum down so nobody can learn about their nasty tricks or how to defeat them . As a matter of fact, I strongly suspect that sufficient evidence currently exists that they may already have that in mind. If so, I just happen to have a readily available answer to that one too, and I'm in the process of putting it into effect as we speak. That should be fait accompli by next weekend at the latest. Some posters have said that they have been threatened with re-investigation of all past deletions over the last few years and if evidence of "illegal" removals surfaces they will put the old accounts back on their files. I just hope they try that trick on me. Oh how I would love that! Anyway, I would suggest that you go ahead and build yourself a paper trail so you have multiple violations to complain about rather than just one or two. When you get to court you would be well advised to have sufficient proof that this is not just an oversight on their part and is a pattern of flagrant violation of the law.
I'm with you 100% Bill, if you need my testimony or signature on any action, I'll be the first to sign up. If it wasn't for forums like these, I would have never learned about the FCRA. There is little or no information for consumers to be made aware of their rights. When the actual CRA sites report their own version of the FCRA determining factors, again in clear noncompliance, and the FTC doesn't do anything to stop this, I think we all know where we stand. Anyway, thanks again for all your advice.
