Hi people. I am new to this forum and was referred here by a friendly patron at fatwallet.com. I have spent the last couple of hours reading up the boards and can't tell you the last time I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. My problem is this. I had a $100 debt back in late 2000 that I paid off in 2 payments. It was a hospital debt that I never took seriously. The debt was forwarded to NCO FINANCIAL who sent me a few notices. I finally responded and did 2 seperate payments of $50 to them. I have grown up and learned my lesson of responsibility and now I find my credit score suffering because NCO reported the debt. Even though it shows up as paid on my CR my FICO score explanation always notes that due to the collection activity, my score is low. Prior to coming to this board, I had a friend who works for a credit repair agency send a letter to the CRA's on my behalf but I guess NCO validated the disputed claim and the notation was updated to 9/2003 on my CR. Since my friend did me a favor by sending out the letter, I took matters into my own hands after a short period of inactivity and called NCO myself. I requested that they send me copies of the notices they sent to me back in late 2000. I spoke to a guy named Andrew Barra (or Larra) and he was rude and unhelpful. He refused my request and said that I would have to live with the notation on my CR for 7 years - the best he could do was to send me a copy of my account profile showing the payment dates and account number. I feel that this was the wrong path of action and since reading up on some of the other posts (i.e. Hall of Fame posts) I just wish I had been wiser back than. Is there any way I could have the CRA's remove the tradeline at this point or am I stuck with the that notation on my CR's for another 5 or so years...? Please be gentle people, this is my first post and my plea for help from those who are educated in this field. Thank you in advance. -HD
Hi HD. Welcome to the board. Whenever a TL is negative, but paid in full, the CA [NCO] has no reason to access your report. If they do it's without a permissible purpose, and is a flat $1,000 fine. So - make em pull your report (No PP). Then you'll use that violation to extract their cooperation. You do that by leveling an FCRA charge against them for inaccurate reporting and telling them to fix it. But don't tell them why it's wrong. They'll [probably] pull to see what's wrong and boom you got em. See? .
Okay guys - here is an update. First, Butch - thanks for the reply. I decided to go by the Nutcase approach. I've already sent NCO a Nutcase letter (they rec'd it on Jan. 27). No response yet. I check my Experian regularly and there has been no change. I'm putting together the Litigous Son of Nutcase letter and modifying it to reflect that they have not responded to my first letter. I am also going to get it notarized this time around. Since I am mailing it, I am extending the deadline to repond to 15 days (as opposed to the 5 days on the Son of Nutcase letter). I know there is a 3rd version of the Nutcase letter. I will be prepping that to be sent out immediately after the 15-day timeline passes on this letter that I will be sending out tomorrow morning. I think if they don't respond after that point, I will mail copies of all the letters along with copies of the return receipts to the three CRA's in hopes that they will delete the line items on their own. Anyhow, I am crossing my fingers. I will be mailing out the letter (Litigious Son of Nutcase) first thing tomorrow morning. Any further help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the help - wish me luck! -HD
