Yesterday I received an alert from Equifax, and upon logging in to TrueCredit, my 3-bureau report showed that American Honda had incorrectly reported my account as Late 30 Days when it was/should be showing CLOSED and CURRENT. The reps at American Honda admitted that it was their fault, and that they would send out an update to the 3 bureaus last night. However, I was told that it might take the credit bureaus up to 20 days to update my report!!!! Is there a faster way to have this incorrect info updated on my reports? My 3-bureau report from TrueCredit today still showed the Late 30 Days entry. I have a good amount of 0% BT credit currently being utilized right now, and I would hate to have this incorrect entry affect my accounts. Also, do I have any recourse against American Honda for this incorrect reporting if it does turn out to have negative effects on me? Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Hello, Am sorry about your frustration. I have no advice for you, but I am just now finding out how hard it is to get incorrect info corrected on your reports...See my post at Identity theft/Fraud help please. Please post how your ordeal turns out. I am very interested to see if they all do the right thing... James
From my experiance it usually does not take 20-30 days to update once an OC change is submitted to the CRA. The updates, for me, have always been 7-10 days, or sometimes less. If it is corrected within 30 days you may not have FCRA statutory damages because the FCRA allows 30 days to resolve disputes. But if you have documented Actual damages, like drop in scores, credit card/loan denial, increase interest rates on other cards due to the 30 late reporting, then you are entitled to Actual damages from the OC. honeycomb
Do you have a fax? Tell America Honda that you want them to fax you a copy of the UDF that they sent to the Credit Reporting Agencies.with the corrected information on it. The UDF (Uniform Data Form) is the "insurance" that proves that a correction was submitted to the Credit Reporting Agencies. It can be done in hours but you need confirmation with the UDF copy that it was even actually corrected by America Honda.
Follow up all disputes, or phone conversations, in writing, certified. If they say they are going to do "X", send a letter, referring to your phone conversation, summarizing that they agreed to do "X". You are trying to force people to do what they should be doing anyway, and even have a legal obligation to do, but have little incentive to do. You have to create the paper trail you might need to force compliance, whether or not you ultimately need it, since that gives you both moral leverage to get them to act (i.e.: so their boss can tell them "get this mess cleared up"), and documentation should you need to take legal action. Failure to do this risks increased damage from delays in correction, with no more traction to force compliance than you have now. You don't want to find out 20 or 30 days from now that nothing has happened, and they just tell you again "we need to research this, after which it could take 20 to 30 days". Make each act you take force your opponent toward your goal.
Thank you for all your suggestions. I just tried calling AH again, but the office is closed, so I will try to call tomorrow. I will be asking them to fax me the UDF, as well as a letter stating that the derogatory entry was their mistake. I will send out a certified follow-up mail tomorrow as well. I seemed to remember reading a post a while back where the poster mentioned that he/she was able to get a rep from one of the credit bureaus on the phone and made corrections to his/her credit report as they spoke. Can't seem to find that post now I have been checking my CRs the past two days, and the entry has not been corrected. Arrgg!
I wonder if there is a way to find out the mailing address to the Executive Office (or something similar) at AHFC? Their reps would not tell me on the phone, and the only address that I have of AHFC is from my credit reports: PO Box 6070 Cypress, CA 90630 I tried to google, but I wasn't able to find anything.
Contact the city of Cypress, and ask for their business licensing department. They should have on record all addresses associated with their business license, including the name and address of the person or corporate officer responsible for renewing that license.
If you're looking for a corporate address, you can try Hoover's or the local library's Reference Desk. Generally, they return calls in a very timely manner with the information you need and some even e-mail, if you prefer. Your local library's reference desk will even do searches online, while you're on the telephone with them. Records - and librarians - are our friends.
Update: Spoke to someone this morning, and was told that they no longer use UDF, and that an electronic update was sent, so they could not provide me with a copy of what was sent to the bureaus. I asked to have a letter stating that the account was paid in full, as well as a separate letter stating that the "Late 30 Days" entries on my reports were a result of their mistake, to be faxed to me, and was told that it could take up to 48 hours for that to happen. I also sent out two certified letters documenting my conversations with the reps, and my displeasure at what had happened; one to the Cypress address, and the other one to an Irving, TX address that I had found online. Now I will be holding my breath ...
Final Update: On Monday TU and Equifax updated their records, and on Tue EXP finally updated ts record. Curiously my EXP score is still lower than what it was before, even though everything else is the same. I'll be curious to see what the official reply from Honda is to my certified letters. Still haven't received the faxed letter that Honda promised me.
Push on getting a letter from Honda confirming their correction. Follow up with their agreement to FAX you, with a certified letter indicating you are still awaiting their letter confirming their correction, and have not received it as they had promised. You want a letter, on their letterhead, signed by an appropriately titled employee, indicating that: 1) They are removing the erroneous lates from your reports. and: 2) According to their records, your paid off loan (loan # nnnnn) was "paid as agreed, never late". If they could make this reporting mistake once, they can make it again. For that matter, you might have fixed this on one report, but you might find it in 6 months on one of your other reports. It may seem silly now, when they probably just want to say "Why do you need that, we fixed it.", but 3 years from now, if you were about to close on a mortgage, and this popped up, you would not be happy if they told you "We will have to research that, but it is in our old archives, so it might take weeks.", while you get stuck with higher rates on a large loan. You want to have their own letter confirming their correction, and it is easier for them to correct quickly, or for you to get your loan back on track by rapid rescoring. The mistakes any institution or system makes, and it's effectiveness at correcting them, are characteristic of its ability to operate accurately and reliably. If they make a mistake once, you have a "head's up" that they can make it again.
