I had a bankruptcy that was filed in 10/97 and discharged in 2/98. One of my creditors, Associated Bank sold my bankrupt VISA account to Citibank. A year ago, I found out about this as CitiFinancial put another entry in my Experian file. I disputed this and the new account was removed. Upon checking my Experian report, the account was put back on and listed as a charge off as of 9/01! I disputed this and it came back as verified. I called Associated Bank and they said they have every right to transfer bankrupt accounts to another party. I have two letters that state that the discharged bankrupt account was sold to Citibank from both of them. What can I do about this? Tim
Sounds sort of like what Household did to me. I have written to the creditor and sent them proof that the accounts were discharged in BK. The accounts started off stating included in Chapt 13. I never filed a Chapter 13. That is what triggered the whole thing. Mine too were disputed and came back verified. Then when I received my Equifax last week I was mortified to find out that one of the accounts went from Chapter 13 to Charge Off. It made it worse than it originally was. FUSA and Ford are also reporting wrong. Ford is supposedly fixing their error (I have received documentation they are sending to the CRA's that they faxed to my attorney). FUSA are total idiots as I received something from them so ridiculous it truly makes them look stupid. I am waiting for my TU to get here. I just received my Experian results, but no updated report (they just sent the one page). I am going to have to call and request a full report from Experian. Then, I will at that point pursue the legal action I have threatened them with. I would get the contact information and write a letter with proof attached. I would email their customer service through their website. Make it clear that the item was already investigated through the CRA because their famous response will be to dispute it through the CRA. Threaten them with legal action; you can always take them to small claims court without having to hire an attorney. You could take it to a higher court for FCRA violations and hire an attorney to do so. I fully intend to take them to court on this if they do not correct as a response to my letters. I am still in the middle of all this and so far only Ford has attempted to take steps to correct this, but I cannot be sure until I get my reports. If I get documentation from the others and the CRA's do not correct it, then it's off to take legal action against the CRA's. You have to get this corrected not only because it's blatantly wrong, but because when you go to get a loan, the loan officer will question it and will cause a delay in your loan being processed. A mortgage is will you find the most hangups due to these mistakes on your credit report.
bk7 or 13??? If it's a bk7 that was discharged then the debt doesn't legally exist and can't be sold. I've had this too. incompetence. It violates the automatic stay of the bankruptcy court, and at a minimum, the FCRA. Call your trustee of the bk court and your lawyer and it'll be resolved quickly. Have them remove all tradeline entries and all inquiries. Give them 30 days from one letter, then sue. It's an open and shut case. You can sue both the original creditor who was discharged and the one who bought it. Both violated.
This was part of a Chapter 7 BK. The VP of Credit Card Services at Associates Bank is investigating this matter and will call me back at 10:00 AM Friday. What demands should I make to rectify this problem? Tim
Well, you want to write them a letter stating that they've violated the stay of the Bk... violated the FCRA by even putting an account on your reports much less aging it again etc etc... and by even looking into your reports (they had NO permissible purpose at all). Additionally, you need to write the original creditor and let them know you know they violated the automatic stay of the bk and also the FCRA by allowing the tradeline to be updated and collected upon when the debt no longer legally exists. collect after a bk7 discharge. who hires these morons??? call your bk atty. and if you need to, on your bk paperwork there's a "trustee" who's listed. Call that person and let them know you've been pursued after the discharge and you need help. tell your creditors that you've notified the Bankruptcy trustee of their violation. by the way, this is a slam dunk. You should have every bit of every tradeline ever associated with this removed: original creditor and collection efforts. I got a major bank to remove a bk listing because they pursued me after discharge (they actually had the gall to file a lawsuit)... these guys are morons. If I can find a copy of the letter I sent... I'll modify it and post it. You need to send letters to at least both creditors involved. If you want to, you can also sue them. regardless of whether they correct this, they still violated the law and you can get a minimum 1k from each creditor for the chain of violations. Let me phrase this bluntly... there is no excuse, no reason, nothing for them to do but remove all evidence of this (and if I were you I'd just go ahead and ask for 1k for the FCRA violations) from each creditor. There is easy. They are wrong. I was actually told from opposing counsel that they were surprised I settled for just tradeline removal. He said anyone could have gone into court and gotten 1k for the trouble. so I'd suggest getting paid for their error in addition to getting this all corrected.
there is a company that is suing Citifinancial that may be interested - http://www.lieffcabraser.com/
