Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Why, thank you! I think there is a whole lot they never envisioned. Fact is, write a law, and these guys will find the teeniest little crack in it and exploit it past all limits. Getting the laws written in the first place was difficult, getting them re-written and improved is well nigh impossible. And then there is the suspicion that the "cracks" were written into the law. That's why I brough up David Szwak - his comments that the CRA's want to sell information and services. They don't really care about anything else, so they want the law to be vague; and, they have the political clout to get them written that way Re sentence structure and punctuation - I used to teach English, and I agree with what you're saying. IMO, Experian may change their procedures if they see a broad reaction to their usual procedures. EFX and TU - it will take litigation to make any significant changes.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Ooops! I forgot this one. Doggone if I know of any pertaining to inquiries, and I don't have access to a lot of the legal resources - most of them are paid subscriber services, like lexus. Maybe some of the law students could help - I know we have some on here.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Breeze: I just now called up your David Swazk or whatever his name is and I'm really impressed. He also talked to me about a firm in Tulsa, Ok that he works with a lot and since I have at least one or more cases coming up that I'm going to want to be filing on for myself, I may just end up using him or the Tulsa one. I'm impressed. Thanks
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! I was impressed also, and all I did was read his cases and comments.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Greg, I have a creditor (credit card company) who extended me a line of credit of 17,500.00. I had a balance of $899.00 having started with a balance of $1500 and paying over $600 in two months on it. At the end of last month I used one of their convenience checks (same terms as using the credit card) in the amount of $1,000.00 to pay a higher interest obligation. I have Identity Guard for my TU report and they inform me that this creditor has pulled a HARD inquiry on or abt the same date that the convenience check posted. This creditor also had used TWO hard inquiries on Equifax during the approval process (a few days apart). Now I am dinged THREE hard inquiries for ONE application for credit. The creditor in question has been reporting to all three CRA's since July and should have been able to do an AR for the use of the convenience check if they felt the need to do so. According the the FCRA they are allowed to ding me as many times as they want? Am I understanding this correctly?
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! No Breeze, actually it's JUNIPER! I couldn't believe it as I was so happy with their customer service, their web site, bill pay options, etc that I had written a glowing, gushing, letter of COMPLIMENT to them on PlanetFeedback. Then they do this with absolutely NO REASON. My credit has never looked better, my balances are dropping at a rate of $1300 to $1500 a month plus I only am using a tiny fraction of my credit limit with them. I'm sure they assume that people don't check their reports very often or don't know about the damage inquiries do to the scoring. Otherwise, they probably think people will lie down like a dog. I think their motivation may be to make sure that you have too many inquiries to get any other credit and you'll be stuck with them once the teaser rate goes to the standard rate, which is higher than most bank cards right now. They may lose their Gomez rating when I'm thru with them.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Yes, that's my theory on the excessive inquiry practices. They want to lock you in and then raise your rates.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! The banks do that too. They put a bad rating on you with the chexsystems and telecheck and others so you can't go get another account in case you get mad at them. Banks have been sued fo doing that too from what I've heard. I've got a theory that sounds crazy, even to me, but I'm not so sure it is. Let me throw it out for comment. 1. Let's say I write a check and it bounces. 2. I go into a store, maybe even the same one where I wrote the check that bounced and I want to write a check but due to chexsystems or whoever's report, I can't cash a check. 3. Theory: A check is an instrument of debt and so when a merchant refuses your check, he is actually refusing you credit. 4. He says no, I won't take your check, so he denies credit (in net effect) and he must send you a letter stating the reason why he denied you credit based on who's report just as he would if you had applied for a credit card or credit account. If he don't send you the letter in the specified time, (10 days or so) he violates FDCPA or FCRA or whatever law applies. 5. You sue him for violation of whatever law is applicable. Now then, you don't actually want to fiddle with sueing the store for refusing to honor your check, you just want to find out who it was that give you the bad rap. All you need to do is to take him or mail him a letter stating that he violated the law and that you intend to sue him. (Notice of intent to sue letter.) 6. When you do find out who and have it in writing from the merchant, you then can demand a credit report from Chexsystems or whoever. They don't want to provide so you then actually do have grounds for an actual lawsuit which I think you could win. what does everybody think of that? And don't come back telling me I'm nuts because I already know that. Either I have a workable theory or it needs some revision or it needs chunking. Whatever.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! YOU'RE NUTS, BILL!!! You can get your file from Chex without going through all that, Bill, just go to their website and pay for it. Generally speaking, if you only write checks when there is money in the bank to pay them, you will not get on Chex (or any other CRA for checking accounts). We all make mistakes - I've made a few myself - my bank will pay the check and notify me to come in and cover it. If you don't do this sort of thing all the time, the bank isn't going to mess with you. If you frequently overdraw, they'll getcha!! And then there are the absolute royal screwups that occur with banks, that can land you on chex when it isn't your fault. But they are not all that common - just really bad when they happen. Twist your devious little brain out of shape on another problem, Bill. You should have been a criminal, LOL.
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Been there, done that. Traffic violations, jaywalking in Los Angeles back in the late 1950's and they are probably still looking for me cuz I never paid the ticket., got arrested in New Orleans when I was 14 for no visible means of support, drunk a couple of times. I'm a real outlaw. LOL
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Mist: I agree with breeze: That it will take consumer action to wake them. We're talking about a fine (albeit important) point onto which the credit granting industry hasn't caught. I believe that it is caused by carelessness and negligence-- on the part of the users, and on the part of the CRAs who don't police them. The hilarious thing is that they would have to spend a lot of money to correct all the illegal inquiries that have been made in the last two years, so you won't get the CRAs to fess up anytime soon. It probably starts with the street salesman for the CRAs and resellers schlepping their terminals or PC access in local collection offices, setting them up hastily so they're not late to lunch, and boneheaded IS people not knowing jack about the principles of credit reporting. The FCRA is vague on the issue, but not quite enough to let the CRAs get away with it. Remember the FTC's action against them for not picking up the phone? You know the whole routine: Deny, deny, deny-- pay fines on the courthouse steps-- deny any wrongdoing, deny any wrongdoing, deny any wrongdoing, Hell. I can probably write an interchangeable script for it. Just change the subject matter for each issue. I'm actually looking for some cases about which I can write and publish. You can be anonymous. Should be fun; they deny right off the bat and we're off to the races. What do you say?
Re: Collection inquiries SUCK!!!!!! Any volunteers, Greg? I would if I had any of those (thank God I don't). I had a blast a few years ago when Kim, who writes insurance stuff for Kiplinger's, interviewed me about how agents get paid. I still have a copy of the article. It was not anonymous, LOL, and created quite a backlash.
inquiries, collectors Experian consumer credit file disclosure dated January, 2001: Disclosure dated October, 2001: January: October:
