Relevant History: (2007-2008) Hammered this board for info on credit repair. Fixed up my girlfriend nicely (went from mid 600s to 700+). I myself was a ghost at the time but have been building. (Since Then) Have been very happy as we are thinking of getting married and buying a house and we are now content that we have Excellent credit. Cancelled the monitoring I was paying for at the time (TrueCredit) since I am too cheap to pay $20/month x 2 people x 12 months = almost $500 a year when I thought I was done having to monitor monthly and could just do so annually when I pulled my free yearly reports. (Over the Last Month) I've been getting strange calls from what sounded like a creditor. As per what I learned here, I have not spoken to them. But I keep getting the message. (Yesterday) Decided something negative must have hit one of our histories even though we know it has not happened since the repair so I decided to get a copy of our bureaus and have a peek. I couldn't get the very detailed ones from annualcreditreport.com (since I last pulled our free ones in September of '08) so I got a tri-merge which goes back 24 months with a free trial and a FAKO score from CreditCheck Total. Turns out a TL was added to her for an unpaid Verizon of New England bill in 2008. $300 or something like that. Thing is...SHE NEVER LIVED ANYWHERE IN NEW ENGLAND!!! As a matter of fact, an address has been added to her reports in Massachusetts but she's never lived outside of Brooklyn--she and I were here being happy and responsible credit recipients for all of last year. How did this happen? What do I do. Hell, I'm almost willing to pay the $300 in exchange for deleting the TL just 'cause I almost don't want to deal with all the hassle again. What's my easiest option here? Please help.
You could always try a DV if you're within 30 days, but if everything has been phone-based, that may or may not be meaningful. Don't ever pay for anything that isn't yours. Sounds like Verizon really dropped the ball -- a disturbingly common event. I've lived at my same address for five years and have had service with them for four, and about once a year Verizon changes my billing address to something similar but not right. I would either dispute it (in writing, via certified mail w/ signature receipt) with the CA or ask the CRAs to investigate it as "I have no idea who this person / address is". One possibility is identity theft, in which case you would want to contact your local police department for assistance. Another is that Verizon's records got mangled, in which case the correct bill amount is anyone's guess. Good luck.
I have a letter here that I found (thought it was junk mail) sent 5/20 regarding the bill. It's got the "unless you notify this office within 30 days" jargon so I've got eight days to get a letter to them. So I'll go ahead with a Debt Verification. Since it really isn't hers (really!) should I go ahead and send a "Not Mine" to the three bureaus as well? What's the right way to attack this? I'm really pissed about this and looking for a fight but at the same time I can't help but feel that it's worth it to settle just to get it over and done with. I'll be even more pissed after laying down but at least I'd be worry free again. I hate to give the losers at Verizon or Pinnacle the satisfaction but I don't want to have the thing hovering on my gf's report for God-knows-how-long while I jump through hoops. I consider my time valuable and if I could get them to delete it for half (or less) of the $367 then it's personally worth it for me. How much do CAs usually take on a settlement offer anyway? What should I do?
Send the validation (CMRRR, of course) and see what happens. Tell them she's never lived there. In the meantime, dispute the address on the credit report. You might be able to do it online or by phone and get it removed.
RE: Disputing the address with the CRA. I've read that personal information can usually be changed online and I'd like to do that for time's sake. But are they going to ask me for proof that she did not live there? In other words, who's the burden of proof on here: me to show that she was never there or them to show that she was. I could do it by mail with her paystubs and some bills going back for a year showing the same brooklyn address as proof. Or should I just try it online and see if they ask for something? Thanks.
