Hi all, I had mentioned that I had disputed an item with Equifax by letter which included a creditor's letter to delete the information. Equifax launched an investigation and stated TWO days later that it "verified" the information. I knew that Equifax was being deceptive and was not investigating at all, since it had also "verified" another account which I had disputed with a creditor's letter and then turned around and deleted that same account two days after it supposedly verified. After several phone calls to the creditor and yet another letter from the creditor stating deletion, Equifax "verified" the account again. Today I called the supervisor of the credit bureau dept. of the company and he reviewed my account and confirmed that there was no evidence at all that Equifax even contacted them, and that if they had, that it was noted all over my account that it was to be deleted. He was very nice and said he'd rush fax a letter of deletion to all three CRA's (this makes letter #3 to the CRAs). So, I called Equifax today and demanded to know how they "verified", and they said the verification was done through an ACCD (sp?) tape system and they didn't know which specific dept. of the creditor it reached. I demanded that they start a "phone investigation" and gave them the phone number and ext. of the dept. supervisor. Equifax agreed to call him directly instead of relying on a tape. They said it would take up to two weeks for that dept. to make the call. I'm frustrated and tired of all drama and wrote all that to say this: Equifax will by no means any longer accept letters written from the creditor to the consumer as proof of anything. Unless Equifax receives a universal data form or a phone verification directly from the creditor, we are just plum out of luck. So much for sending equifax my card statements for reporting limits. :-(
RE: Equifax won't take letters How infuriating!! But, Marci, I have a good idea how angry and frustrated you're feeling. JCPenney has been good to work with and, after a few letter exchanges, they agreed to delete some derogatory account info from all three of my credit reports. In keeping with their word, Penneys contacted all three bureaus and sent me a letter of confirmation. Experian and Transunion updated my account to a positive status immediately but Equifax is still dragging their feet. Like you, I sent the confirmation letter I received from Penneys to Equifax and they still refused to make the change. I'm sure Penneys has contacted them as well, so I don't know what's standing in the way of progress. Equifax has been extremely stubborn lately. When I first started my credit repair endeavors, nearly a year ago, they were much more responsive. In fact, the first deletion I ever got came from them. But now they're getting harder and harder to budge! I want my JCPenney account to show positively! And I'm going to keep after Equifax until I get what I want! These days, it must require an act of God in order to get them to change anything! Donna
RE: Equifax won't take letters Hi Donna, Yes, you are right that this is so infuriating. It is a waste of my time to get them to do things that I bet even Cross Country, well no, Orchard could easily do. You wrote: >These days, it must require an act of God in order to get them to change anything! I predict it'll require a series of very hefty lawsuits. I know that they are right to screen letters from consumers carefully, since it is easy to concoct a false dispute letter on company letterhead, but if Equifax doesn't make room for legitimate letters, they make be faced with a whole series of "Denise Richardson's". But then again, Equifax never did settle with Denise, did they?...
RE: Equifax won't take letters Marci, As I see it, Equifax has *no* excuse! You and I shouldn't have to endure this kind of frustration! Yes, Equifax is right to question letters that a consumer sends in from a creditor. But the solution is pretty simple - Call and verify. Allegedly, Equifax is getting validation from the creditor anyway, when the consumer submits a dispute, so why not do the job right and follow up with at least some sort of direct contact. Really, all we want is for Equifax to adequately do their job. They shouldn't keep telling us that they've verified information, when they haven't. And I agree: More law suits probably are the answer. That's what it's going to take to force Equifax to budge. I don't like that but that's just the way it has to be sometimes. Whenever possible, I prefer to see matters settled out of court, but Equifax is not playing fair. Anyway, you keep me posted and I'll keep you posted. Donna
RE: Equifax won't take letters Donna wrote: >Anyway, you keep me posted... I certainly will do. Thanks for your support. Marci
RE: Equifax won't take letters I also just sent in a letter to equifax from a creditor which shows a judgment on my report the creditor signed a release of debt to my mortg. company so I could close on my house, they had no record of me anywhere.I'm currious if they will call the creditor or confirm the judgment at clerks office which is on file. This could be a pain in the ass... the creditor did not want to write the letter in the first place they told me they had no idea who I was had no record of me and I was waisting there time.
RE: Equifax won't take letters Unfortunately what you fall to realize is that we (the credit bureaus) receive thousands of fraud documents daily sent in by the consumer. With the advent of computers and scanners consumers are able to create authentic looking documents. It is only determined after the fact that the documents are fraud which causes an unbelievable amount of work and investigation. Not everyone is honest like those here on this BBS. By the way it is ACID.
RE: Equifax won't take letters You are wrong Equifax will take letters from the creditor and the bureaus will do what every the creditor instruct them to. Susan
RE: Equifax won't take letters Can you expand on that? What experiences have you had and are they recent? Several of us here are having the same problem. Could you explain your secret?
RE: Equifax won't take letters Susan, Read my post carefully. I didn't say that Equifax wouldn't take letters from the creditor. I said Equifax won't take letters written *to the consumer* and then subsequently sent *by the consumer* from the creditor. Transunion and Experian will.
RE: Equifax won't take letters Like I wrote before, I understand how vunerable letterheads are to scanner technology, etc... But Equifax needs to tread that "no creditor letter from the consumer" line really carefully, because in it's staunch refusal to reinvestigate items that are valid, it will expose itself to costly lawsuits. And if the ACID system is as unreliable as I perceive it to be in my case (Equifax verified an item via ACID two days before they deleted it via UDF), then Equifax ought to simply immediately phone verify with the person/department signed off on the letter and bypass the unreliable tape system altogether. This is about Equifax doing a fly-by-your-pants verification with a computer, refusing to accept creditor letters and then not even having the decency to dig a little deeper with the source of the letter. My very frustrated opinion, Marci
RE: Equifax won't take letters Marci: To answer your question..no, Equifax is still a defendant. They did a Motion for Summary Judgement and we are still awaiting the Judges decision. Equifax was definately the worst CRA to deal with as they duplicated inaccurate information and refused to correct even after receiving Universal Data Forms and many written dispute letters. I do not believe they follow procedures to investigate properly. If the Judge decides on their behalf to dismiss based on whatever reasoning, I will appeal because they must be held accountable for their actions and stop doing the damage they do to innocent consuemrs. I'll keep you posted. Denise
RE: Equifax won't take letters molly wrote: ------------------------------- Can you expand on that? What experiences have you had and are they recent? Several of us here are having the same problem. Could you explain your secret? ========================================= SO YOU ARE ONE =HOW EVER ONE ISN'T ENOUGH
