I have been using Lex Law Firm to dispute my credit reports for the past 15 months, but thanks to the courage I've gained on this site, I've decided to take matters into my own hands. I received an "already disputed" statement from Experian for 3 of my accounts. Yesterday, I used the report number listed on the statement and pulled up my entire report. I still have 10 negative items listed. I disputed 5 of them online. When I looked at my inquiries, I was overwhelmed. I couldn't find a way to dispute any of them online. Am I missing something? Would it be smart to send a letter through snail mail disputing the inquiries while the investigation to verify my accounts is going on? I also noticed that there are several mistakes in my personal information. (spelling of my name, wrong addresses, wrong BIRTH DATE!!!) How do I get this part straightened out? Once again, I did not see a way to do this online. I don't want to get thrown in the "frivolous file," but I'm also getting quite impatient as I've been with Lex for 15 months already!! I would appreciate any feedback--Thanks
You don't state which CRA or whether the inquiries are hard or soft. If soft, don't bother, you are the only one who sees them and they don't factor into FICO. If hard, I have not seen a way to dispute an inquiry on line and it's rather impossible to dispute the "correctness" of an inquiry. BUT, it is highly possible the company who pulled the inquiry had no legal permissible purpose to do so, and you CAN sue them over this FCRA violation. I did and I collected my $1000 doing just that. I opted out of the marketing inquiries, so now if I see any soft inquiry that is not me checking my file, I automatically sue the CRA for allowing a soft inquiry. As far as being thrown in the "frivolous" file is concerned, I HOPE a CRA does that to me - automatically dismiss any dispute I have as frivolous because I dared to dispute before. If any CRA does that to me I will immediately sue, because FCRA classifies each dispute as separate, so one "frivolous" dispute does not make all future disputes frivolous. And my position would be - if you feel it's frivolous and I don't we'll let a Judge decide that. See ya in Court. I just filed suit today against Equifax for that.
I think I did mention that the CRA was Experian in my first post. The inquiries I'm concerned about are the hard inquiries. Do I sent letters to EACH of the companies who've inquired or can I send one letter to Experian asking for verification? Does having hard inquiries from current creditors hurt my score? I was thinking about tackling just the hards from companies I'm not currently doing business with. Thanks for your feedback.
Lets start with the easy stuff first. Start with cleaning up your name and addresses. If the baddies are tied up with old addresses, get rid of them. With experian, you can call and have old addresses removed, old jobs, name variations, etc. You have to keep on top of that. With these being done via the telephone, you can then dispute the baddies. 1st dispute: Not mine/No knowledge (do this after the address cleanup) If items come back verified, dispute the item and request a procedure letter which will make them re-verify the information. After disputing these, send letters to the inquiring companies and tell them that you may and emphasize may be a victim of fraud because you did not request their services. Yet the best piece of advice I can give you is to read PsychDoc credit primer and some of Lizardkings, LKH and Butch's strategy. Trust me it works.
thanks for your feedback. What do you think about this letter for disputing inquiries? It's a revision of some of the letters I've found on this site. I would really appreciate feedback before I send it out. ************************************* I am getting extremely frustrated with your company, so consider this letter a formal complaint against your company for reporting inaccurate credit information. Your company has continued to ignore my requests regarding the errors which remain in my consumer credit report. I am distressed that you have failed to maintain reasonable procedures in your operations to assure that everything you publish in my report is completely accurate. Credit reporting laws exist to ensure that bureaus report only 100% accurate credit information. You are therefore required by law to take every step possible to assure that the information you report about me is completely accurate and correct. The following inquiries occurred without any authorization, and for no legitimate business purposes. As such, they are very serious errors in reporting. I respectfully request to be provided proof that these inquiries were in fact authorized. The only proof acceptable will be a document with my signature on it for each inquiry listed below. If you are unable to obtain such a document for any of the inquiries listed below, the unauthorized inquiries must be deleted from my report as soon as possible: Inquiry Dates Company XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX Please delete this misleading information, and supply me as well as all creditors who have received a copy of my credit report within the last 6 months with a corrected credit profile. If this problem continues, I will be forced to seek legal representation. I shall assume that 30 days constitutes a "reasonable time" to complete these actions unless you immediately notify me otherwise.
I discovered with EXP you have to call the fraud department to get them to investigate INQ. I've had good luck with EQ by calling them and telling them I didn't apply and got them deleted. I only do 1 at a time.
Would sending a letter disputing several inquiries at once do any good? (a letter like the one in my last post)
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries 3 or 4 MAX...but they will probably say..."INQUIRES ARE A MATTER OF FACT...THEY HAPPENED" "IF you did not apply you better talk to the FRAUD department of the credit card company" (or some such gibberish)
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries Does having hard inquiries from current creditors hurt my score? I was thinking about tackling just the hards from companies I'm not currently doing business with. debtchoked All hards hurt. THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'""""""""" http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~blagger/the_duel.html http://www.justsaywow.com/pages/flash/warm_bottle.cfm """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
Re: Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries From what I've read about FICO, it looks like just the last year's hard inquires are scored - but they could be lying. That's never happened before.
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries There are other comments about NOT doing this - calling the fraud department - in other threads. I have no experience in this area, but it does sound there's a downside to crying "fraud" in a crowded credit reporting agency. Search for "PP AND fraud"
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries I really don't want to get into anything with the bureaus. I'm not one to scream anything, let alone "fraud." I don't even care about trying to sue anybody. Yes, I could use the money ($1000 per wrong inquiry), but I'm not confrontational enough to deal with court, etc. I just want to clean up my reports and get a nice rate on my mortgage and 2 auto loans (7.5%, 12.75%, & 19.9% respectively). If this EVER happens, I doubt I'll ever worry about all of this again. Well, from all I've read here, I think I'll approach the inquiry dilemma by sending the letter in my previous post with only a couple of the inquiries (most recent) listed. My original question was whether or not it is prudent to send my letter now while some of my accounts are being disputed. What do you think?
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries Chances are that EXP will ignore your INQ dispute. Unless it's fraud they consider it a matter of fact. If the INQ are from good accounts you have it still hurts your score, but in a manual review they'll see it's an existing account instead of new accounts that are turning you down. You could use it as basis for reconsideration.
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries thanks for your reply. How badly do inquiries hurt credit scores? Am I better off spending my time focusing on disputing accounts?
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries If it were me I'd focus on whatever is getting in the way of getting credit. INQ will eventually not be a factor. Bad tradelines will be around a lot longer.
Re: Re: Dispute timeframe accts/inquiries I also noticed that there are several mistakes in my personal information. (spelling of my name, wrong addresses, wrong BIRTH DATE!!!) How do I get this part straightened out? Once again, I did not see a way to do this online. debtchoked ================== Call and have it changed
