First of all I am going to warn ya, this is going to be a little long. Around September of last year I applied for an American Express green card. I was turned down because amex said I had two collections reporting on my equifax report. This was new to me because no collections had ever shown on my paper or online reports from Eqifax. However when I pulled my report thru consumerinfo.com, etc it did infact show two collections. I disputed these by mail and received a letter stating "The collections you disputed are not currently reporting on your credit report." I took this to mean that they deleted them - wrong. I signed up for privacyguard.com's trial period and sure enough there is those two collections on my equifax report. I was pissed, and fedup. I called Equifax who of course directed me to CSC. CSC admitted their was two collections on my credit report and took my dispute over the phone. I finish my day , and come home and pull my report again thru privacy guard.com and equifax. VIOLA! Those collections now show up on my report thru Equifax.com, as well as my previous address. Also on privacyguard.com they also added "also known as: and than put my mothers name, yes my mothers name! Apparently these collections are in my mothesr name but my social security number. They are old medical collections. They do also read "Consumer disputes, reinvestigation in process." Well in 30 days I'll see what happens I guess. Now that these are viewable to me on my Equifax.com report it tanked my score by about 30 points. I am gonna be so pissed if these come back verified because they truely arent mine. But what are the chances of that happening, and if it does what should I do ? Also the collection agency that reported these is local in my city, should I Pay a visit to their office? These collections are from 99 and 98.I wasn't even 18 than ! ! ! ! Thanks for the advice, and thanks for reading if you made it this far.....
They also added known as: and than put my mothers name, Eric2OO2 ============= Reverse identity theft now that's one for you! The END ************************* LB 59
Sounds like an insurance screw up. Maybe a medical bill for you, and your mother was the primary on the insurance. Insurance companies need to find a better way to assign acct numbers. Using SS# is just too dangerous. Who was it, just before Christmas that had their wallet stolen, so the perp had his DL, and an insurance card, with his SS# printed on it? Scary.
Well don't count on common sense to prevail. My spouse and his father's cr's were mixed for YEARS. (Jr. / Sr. -- the DUMBEST thing you can do ever might be to name a child after the parent) It took about a year or more to clear it all up -- all going back to ONE bank account where the info had originally gone awry. The CR's wouldn't accept that this was his father's info and not his even when I pointed out that using this credit info my husband would have held his first mortgage at age SEVEN. That must've been one heckuva lemonade stand!
You have documented evidence that you disputed the bill on numerous occaisions. The bil is not yours. You were denied credit because of these erroneous collection so you have actual damages. Your best option is to sue them in small claims. Since the account is not yours, and you requested removal on numerous occaisions, there is absolutely NO DEFENSE this collection agency can provide. You would be hard pressed to find an easier case to win..
I went to the collection agency today on my lunch hour, with my credit report in hand. They quickly reliazed their error and apologized. At first the receptionist said "The lady who takes care of credit reporting is out to lunch but I'll be glad to give her a message." Well I started talking about actual damages/violations and how I called about this late last year and was told there was nothing in my name with the agency, and the lady magically appeared from behind her cubicle. They were very nice (if I made that kind of error I would be too) and said that they would get a UDF out to Equifax/CSC right away and it should be removed from my report within a week. I'll be eagerly pulling my report, and awaiting its departure. The problem was I was the patient on these medical bills , but not the guarantor. When reporting these collections to EQ they used my social security number, but with the actual guarntors name. Craziness - I could have sued and won with this I am sure because I was denied credit, I had damages. However I'll be happy and satisfied just to see them removed.
I asked for a copy of the UDF and they said they werent sure they could "legally" give me that. But if the collections were not gone within a week for me to call or come and see them.
I'm with kathy, I'd still sue their butts for a collossal f**k up like that. Demand a copy of the UDF and a free copy of your updated credit reports. Have you checked all 3 major CRA's?
