Here is my situation: My equifax report is cleaned but I have one thing left. 2 30 day lates from my Electric company. My position is: It was never disclosed to me that they would report to the credit bureau. I never signed anything nor did their reps tell me when I called them and informed them I would be late. It is only 2 but I want them gone. I did dispute, it came back verified. I tried planet feedback. I received a nice email from them but basically stating they would not remove it. I responded back and asked for a manager to reply. Again, the manager was very nice, but said nope we are not removing the lates. I searched the FCRA, and came up with nothing. I mean shouldn't there be a disclosure or something if they report to the credit bureaus. Shouldn't that be a part of the application process? When I called and informed them I would be late, they were nice, but still no disclosure about credit reporting. This cannot be legal. I mean if I applied for a citi bank mc or visa, there would be an application that states they are pulling a credit report and upon approval monthly payments will be reported. What makes utility companies so different? It doesn't sound right, yet I can't find anything in the FCRA about utility companies that report. If anyone can shed light on this for me I would greatly appreciate it.
I am afraid that under all normal circumstances you are hung out to dry and what they did was completely legal. If it isn't, then I am not aware of it's illegality. But what the heck, I've been wrong before. What makes utility companies different? They are not, except in the sense that they are normally far more regulated than normal companies. There would be no specific mention of utility companies because they are original creditors and are not covered by FDCPA and FCRA is about regulation of the credit bureaus more than anything else. Other types of reporting agencies than credit bureaus are much less regulated by FCRA than they are by FDCPA and other laws. Therefore, I doubt that congress had much of a reason to mention utility companies as being anything special.
Terry. I have to confer with Bill,it is totally legal,as to what to do about it,I have to defer to someone else. Any takers?
Dispute it every 45 to 60 days. There is always the possibility that the Electric co. will get sick of verifying it (if the CRA actually does send them something). You also might run in to the occasional circumstance where the CRA lackey just removes it. Of course, if this is an open account, it will just come back. This is probably by far not the best answer, but It worked for me once, so far, on a paid charge off. I changed my dispute letter a little each time, but stuck with not mine. I tried getting a validation from the original creditor and they sent me a fraud form. I ignored that route and continued to dispute it. After 3 shots it was changed from a pd chgoff to just paid. I'm assuming the creditor just got sick of me, but who knows for sure.
Well, I guess you lucked out and got it accomplished anyway. That fraud form they sent you was your "success snake." You should have let it bite them. (LOL) Why do I make that wisecrack? simple. What you lawfully demanded was a vailidation. You got a fraud form instead and that is when you should have sued the daylights out of them. Hence, that fraud form was your "success snake" and should not have been looked at in such disdain.
Terry, look in your state consumer protection laws for this. In Virginia there is a special form that must be signed and a disclosure that must be given before a person signs up for an account that reports to the bureaus. Many states have laws like this.
