I put in my disputes. I faxed one, sent in two and sent the letter I had faxed to be safe. The 2 (minor disputes) sent in are showing under investigation. The faxed item (my big one) is not. Possibly it just hasn't been entered, but could it be they are refusing to investigate. I just recently disputed, they verified, now I sent the dispute as having incorrect dates, which it does. I don't want to jump the gun by calling them but I also don't want to wait 2 weeks to find out they are refusing to investigate. Anyone with a similar situation or thoughts????
Ginger, I hope you'll pardon my muddled presentation, but it's been a long week, lol. Here's my advice regardless, numbered for your convenience. 1) Get a litigious mindset. Don't phone them up before their 30-day deadline to check up on things. These people aren't your best friends from school. (Ok, I know you know that, but if I restrain myself I promise I won't give you the full force of my nefarious opinions, lol. So pardon the bombast, and I will continue.) As I was saying, these aren't your school pals you're phoning up for a chat. These are people in an organization that you contend are reporting something wrong about you, a violation of your Federal rights. Don't call them. They have 30 days. If they fail to do what they're supposed to do, you've chalked up one or more violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 2) Every time you call a CRA regarding a dispute, you have reset their 30 day clock. My advice: Let that clock run down. It may pay off later, ESPECIALLY if you can document the time you sent that FAX. (The FAX confirmation page will do.) If you sent via the mail, my advice is to send CRRR (Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested). 3) Once the CRA screws up time and again, which they tend to do, you'll have a nice dossier of FCRA violations (things like "didn't note the tradeline was disputed on the report" and "claimed to 'verify' but with incorrect data" and "didn't complete the investigation in the timely period allowed by law," etc.). Armed with that dossier, you can then prepare a more serious Intent to Sue letter and probably get them to remove the kitchen sink. It's been done. I've done it. Even more importantly, if I can do it, anybody can do it, lol -- take my word for it. And even more importantly than that, lots of people have done it: Search this board for the keywords "intent to sue" and you'll begin your collection of sample letters you'll press into action later. 4) Just because you have a litigious mindset and begin cataloging the errors of CRAs and OCs and CAs doesn't mean you'll go to court. There are many techniques for psyching your opponents into submission, so you've got a lot to learn by reading this site. If you've not read the top three posts (and they're long, so be prepared for a night or two of intensive study, after which you'll be a veritable Ph.D. of credit repair), then do so at your earliest convenience. Finally, of course, many Creditnet members have taken CRAs (and others) to court, including me, with success. However that can be an intimidating thought for someone new to this, so don't worry about that now. Just tell yourself, I can write these letters and never go to court, and that's the truth because you'll probably never, ever, ever go to court because you won't need to. (Gotta love that errant preposition at the end of the last run-on sentence, lol.) 5) Don't worry about CHOD. If they don't just delete this time of year, don't worry about it. Just catalog their mistakes. In any event, calling them on the phone and rousting a real live human being regarding your issue kind of defeats the whole CHOD idea anyway, so once again don't call. 6) Be patient. Your credit repair journey will take several months. It took me 8 months, and that's considered speedy. Just look at it this way: if it takes you 18 or 20 months to do this, that's still much faster than the 5 or 7 or 10 years it would otherwise take if your reports were left to their own natural evolutionary paths. In the mean time, you'll watch your credit scores sail up, up, up, and you'll learn a lot about your federal civil rights as a consumer. Ok, that's it. I always like to pipe up when I hear somebody say, "I just disputed this, and something seems wrong just 14 days later, should I call them up?" Just remember: when you prepare those really great Intent to Sue letters in 6 or 10 or 14 months from now, you'll want to be able to say, "I gave you the full time allowed by federal law to address this, and you failed to do so." Don't help them by alerting them to their FCRA violations. Good luck! Doc P.S. Obviously these are just the opinions of one fellow. Others may disagree. Listen to all comers. Somewhere in the dialog you'll synthesize what makes sense for you!
Thanks! I always love your responses! Yes, I am anxious and just had read about others calling to make sure they were in dispute and started a little premature panicking. I have kept all my fax and mail records and will silently wait it out. As far as reading the first 3 posts, I have read them and as far back as this website posts goes for examples and answers. In fact, I have been glued to my computer all through the night just fascinated at the possibility of great credit. I actually started this over a year ago and got lazy. Now, after finding this board and others triumphs, I am again energized. I really don't want any new credit at the moment. I just never want to be turned down again. Thanks again for the advice. I tend to think I know what I am doing then doubt myself when I don't get action. Happy Holidays!
just a little ps to Doc's wonderful post. --- Never, ever call them if you can help it. If you do call tape it or have someone listen in. Take excellent notes. Don't tell them anything. Any answer you give can possible hurt your position. and most importantly.......{drumroll please}.......NEVER CALL!!!!! ---
Hmmm..wonder if it would slow them down any if we did all call them...not to ask about disputes, but to discuss something or the other...lol. Keep them busy, yanno? <weg> L
Psychdoc, I know your post was not intended for me. Nonethless, after reading it, I found it very inspirational and am all psyched up to finish the battle this time with EXP if they ignore my one CHOD dispute. They have given me the runaround one too many times! Thanks
That's a GREAT idea, everyone should make a point to call their TOLL FREE numbers at least once a day and ask stupid questions... "how many ficos does it take to get a house loan?" "If I have a dog, does his name show on my credit report?" etc..... ;-)
I would doubt it would have any affect on the disputes as that is a separate dep't from the phone rep dep't. But you can call just to annoy them anyway.
I think that they are required to answer calls in a certain amount of time, they might pull employees away from verification duties to answer the phone if this happened.????????
Oh we are awful...lmao! I know I'm bad when I'm starting to act like my teenager and trying to think up of ways to torment the CRAs. L
