I have a hard inquiry from my friends (or should I say fiends) at Risk Management Services for an MCI account. I have 3 hard inquiries on this report right now-another unauthorized entry from SW Bell and one from a car loan (to fall off in OCt of this year). Two questions: 1) Has anyone successfully deleted an inquiry from a CA? Obviously, I didn't authorize this. IF so, did you start with the CRA or the CA? 2) Is it even worth disputing? I am currently disputing the SW Bell inquiry, as I was slammed-needed to reconnect my service. Same account, same fees,etc. How much could this inquiry impact my score? Do hard inquiries from CAs count more negative than others, like Credit Cards? THanks.
DISPUTE THE INQUIRY WITH THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY... STATE THAT YOU DID NOT APPLY FOR CREDIT WITH THAT COMPANY...
I'm in the same boat as you. An inquiry from them showed up on Equifax on 2/17/01 for a MCI account as well. They sent a letter, I responded (return receipt) and they never responded again. Next thing I know earlier this month the trade appears on my Equifax report under collection!!!!!!! I disputed immediately w/ them as NOT MINE!! Came back verified. Called them and had them reinvestigate. Meanwhile, RMA claims to have NOT received my first letter!!! Damn LIARS.....so I send a SECOND LETTER (along w/ a copy of the first letter) via FED/EX and haven't heard from them back. I have been in touch w/ the Corporate offices of MCI (also wrote a letter via Planetfeedback) and I have someone working for me. He has not gotten back to me and I have left several messages and THREE FAXES!!!!!! I am 100% positive that this account is NOT MINE as I have not coducted business w/ MCI prior to 1999 and this debt was from 1996 (which has expired in the state of CA!). I have had the same phone number that I have now since 1995 and my long distance carrier has ALWAYS been AT&T up until June 2000 when I switched to MCI. When I have inquired about unauthorized inquires to the Big 3, they claim that they can investigate but would have to put a fraud alert on my report. I don't want to do that so now what? It also frustrates me that collection agencies can inquire into your credit and place items on there without even validating the debt in any way. Just because MCI claims that I owe them money doesn't mean jack s*&%! MCI never gave RMA any supporting documentation that I owe the debt....they just said here's a name, address, and a dollar amount....investigate and when you locate a person....F*&% their credit up....they'll pay the debt then. Who cares if we LEGALLY can't collect on the debt or not. But everyone cares about their credit so they'll pay! Oh and by the way....don't worry about if the person really owes the debt or not.....just take our word for it. Chances are the person is so stupid that they'll just go ahead and pay it to get you off their back! They'll probably assume that they owe the debt since it's from so long ago! Well...I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!! Their lucky I don't live in South Caroline....or there would be some serious TROUBLE......and that's all jokes aside!
In the first place, if you were slammed, then you need to file with the corporation commission in your state, or whatever they call the regulatory agency for the phone company in your state. There may also be other remedies that you might be able to avail yourself of, but I would try to work through the state agencies in your area with complaints first.
Bill, I am aware of that and am reporting this to the Public Utilities commission in my state as well. Of interest, I called the phone company (SWB)to simply get an address for Customer/Service to mail my dispute to. Six transfers and and hour later, I still didn't have it. I find this to be a basic request; one of the reps said to me "I don't know why your so worried about an inquiry. I bought a house last year, and an inquiry didn't mean anything..." Great-Hello, did I ask you for financial advice or to nose around in my personal business? Oh, and let's not forget who is the customer here..... MP, tell me about your FRUSTRATION with MCI. I have the same B****hit going on, for a year. RMA gives me some BOGUS Word doc printout of a bill from my former address---one that I had paid (difference of .43 cents between what they claim I owe and the check). So I Send copies of the check to MCI-Earth City Address in MO. Calling them got me NOWHERE-they couldn't find the account. I hae now sent 3 letters, w/copies of my cancelled check. No Mas. So, I have to inquiries from Telephone company related stuff that are from 2000-so they will be on there for another year. I currently have a SWB account, so I think that I have some leverage there. I was actually thinking of going the Public Utility Route for MCI too, since they won't respond to me. ARRRGGGGH!!!!
Thanks for the heads up... Now I'm really sick! But the thing with me is that I know for a fact that I DO NOT OWE them this money. In 1996 I can prove that I had AT&T for long distance. I had no relationship w/ MCI back then for ANYTHING! MCI better get their S*&% together because I'm 2 seconds away from canceling my long distance AND my cellular account with them. I knew I should of just stuck w/ AT&T but I switched because MCI was offering flyer miles on Southwest if you switched, etc. Stupid me! I guess I'll keep attacking the two parties involved (Equifax and RMA) until it is OFF my report! I've gone the Earth City route and no one at MCI has NO RECORD of me owing them any money as well. So the bottom line is that RMA will have to delete this account based on the fact that they have nothing supporting their claim. I have also filed a complaint againt RMA to the FTC.
Re: Thanks for the heads up... Remember, the law requires that debt collectors place a statement on their original communication with you that you have thirty days to dispute the validity of the debt. That's the time to respond to them and start a paper trail that you can later use to dispute negative entries that appear on your credit report. It sounds as if had you responded during that 30 day period that the CA would have had difficulty verifying this debt in the first place.
Re: Thanks for the heads up... I'm not sure if this was directed to me or Keltexx but I'll answer for my situation.... RMA sent me a letter stating that I owed them. I responded via US mail return receipt and disputed it and asked for validation. They never responded. Then they placed this on my credit report 3 months later and sent another letter. I called and they claimed that they never received the first letter which was a FLAT OUT LIE!!!! I then sent a SECOND letter via Fed/Ex and provided a copy of the first letter. Still no word yet...I think I'm going to call and harrass them. They received the second letter also. So this is where I'm at and my credit gets to suffer in the meanwhile. It's just not fair......I did what I was asked to do and I still got screwed!
Re: Thanks for the heads up... If that was for me, I did respond when I received a notice from RMA, which was in October, I replied 5 days following the receipt, and know that they received it due to sending it cert. mail. They placed a hard inquiry on the report back in Feb. Oct was the first I had heard of it, since I had not pulled a report and saw it. I received something from them, the quasi validation, which was a printout of the phone calls and costs, but no mention of the check, which I had a copy of. They did not respond to my mailing of the copy of the check. Somewhere along the line a 40$ charge has been tacked on to the original amount that I paid, and that was listed on the "Validation". That is when I started with MCI. I sent them registered mail copies of my checks, letters to RMA, etc....Nada, nothing. Spent two hours with them on the phone being transferred hither and yon. No one had a record of the account.
Re: Thanks for the heads up... Well, if I were either of you folks, these bozos would have either done what I asked them to do or they would long ago end up explaing it to a U.S. Federal District Court Judge. How much longer will you folks fool with them? They are in the drivers seat now. If you let them stay there, then you will just continue to suffer the consequences.
Re: Thanks for the heads up... I had a phone company bill me for $75.00 that I had already paid: To prove to them that I paid the 75 Dollars I sent them copies of the five checks that I paid it with: Did they credit my account $75.00 ?No they deposited the 5 copies into their checking account at their bank and charged me 5 $15.00 returned check fees which added another $75.00 to my account: Talk about being dumber than dumb! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: Thanks for the heads up... And you didn't even complain to the AG or the corporation commission in your state? You just let them get away with it?
Re: Thanks for the heads up... Sounds like you have a lot of experience with this Bill. Care to share? Specifically, the efficacy of the recommendations that you are making? Did it get results?
Re: Thanks for the heads up... If you have a solid beef, one where you have been wronged, then you need to scream to anybody you can including the courts. Telephone slamming is illegal and there are proper authorities in each state to handle such matters. If a company gets caught slamming, they face very stiff penalties. hope that's the one you were talking about.
