I am currently negotiating with the lender on my car. I have a small balance still left and I have requested that they re-report the account without any negative information regarding late payments before I make the final payment. I was told that this would be illegal for them to do and they could lose their license to do business if they did so. Is this true? The posts on this board seem to indicate that a creditor can report anything they want with no repercussions.
RE: Credit Reporting Informati The creditor can report the debt anyway he wants because he is the one that issue the credit. Where he will or not is up to what you an the creditor agree to. GET IT IN WRITING.
RE: Credit Reporting Informati Earl - No, that is not correct. A creditor can not report the debt "any way he wants". The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a creditor to report ACCURATE information IF s/he chooses to report AT ALL. They don't HAVE to report ANYTHING. They just have to report ACCURATE info IF they report. A creditor can re-age the account. This means a clean history starting with, for example, today's date and only reporting what happens from here on out. (Technically, they've modified the original contract, created a "new contract" with the person, and have "decided" to not report the history from the original contract - which they can do - and "decided" TO report the history from the "new" contract). Yes, they CAN clear the old history of all the derogatory marks and make the past X years look great, but by law, they're potentially putting themselves at risk. DO they do it? Sure. Should they do it? Probably - if they're more concerned about getting their money than ruining someone's credit. Are they breaking the law? Probably so, but who's going to approach them about it? But, no, legally, a creditor can NOT report it "anyway he wants" ...
RE: Credit Reporting Informati BLJ - Be careful with where you are trying to take your lender: I hope you understand that your lender is under no obligation to renegotiate your original contract simply because you don't like your credit history with them. If it was a standard contract, they have rights to repossess the car if payment is not made according to the terms of the original contract. You outlined your proposal that you will withhold money legally and contractually owed to them unless they do something on your behalf. This is the basis for financial blackmail and/or extortion. Do you really want to head down that path?? RB is correct. If the lender elects to report your account to the bureaus, they must accurately report the activity on the account. But, it is not entirely legal for the lender to remove information that was reported accurately. That would be a falsification of records. Also, re-aging accounts doesn't always mean starting over with a new account history and disregarding the old history, as was suggested. Most financial institutions use the term "re-age" when they change an overdue account to a current status. You can only get 1-2 per year though. In doing so, the credit history of the account is not changed.
RE: Credit Reporting Informati Technically and legally, the creditor is REQUIRED to report ONLY ACCURATE AND COMPLETE information, but as a common practice, report information is modified all the time. To add to what has been said here, I had 99 months of payment history with a credit card, with 3 months of 30-day lates in SEP-OCT-NOV of 96. What they did in response to a request was to simply re-report to the bureaus, using a beginning date from DEC of 96 to present. This effectively wiped out my "dings". However, they are STILL reporting ACCURATE information. The FCRA ALSO states that any information reported ALSO be COMPLETE. Clearly the credit card is walking a fine line here, but as mentioned in another post, who is going to make an issue of it?
RE: Credit Reporting Informati I think you may have misunderstood my request. I am paying the loan off entirely (Less than $100)no matter what. I am simply attempting to negotiate the best possible solution for myself before I send the last payment.
RE: Credit Reporting Informati The purpose of the statute is to protect the consumer against erroneous information on a credit file. The creditor may change a report to "settled" or "paid satisfactory" or a number of other comments like the above and be reporting a factual statement as that is what the newly negotiated understanding IS. EXAMPLE I am behind $50 on a loan and if after a year the contractual agreementnt between me and XYZ Corp is- in consideration of me paying the back payments by April 1 2001 in full XYZ will report the debt as paid satisfactory with no adverse data to the credit bureaus what they report is a factual statement. regards C.R>
RE: Credit Reporting Informati I agree with what you are saying with the addendum that you can supecede an old contract with a new one and reporting under the new agreement "I agree to report as "settled" is a legal truth. For example a lawsuit on a public record may be in a credit file and if later the suit is appealed and the suit is vacated in law the case never existed and can be eliminated from the credit file. Anything can be negotiated - that is a fundamental basis of contractual law. the purpose of the law is to protect debtors / consumers from having erroneous information in their files not a mandate for creditors to rigidly place information in files. Regards C.R.
