I have been fighting First USA to remove their negative entries on my credit reports for over three years now. When I was a teacher for the state of Texas, I had a hard time paying off my debit I acquired while in college. I joined CCCS to pay off this debit, that I owed to several creditors. My agreement through CCCS, with First USA, was to pay off a certain amount each month with no interest charged. This was in 1995. On January 1, 2000 they started charging me interest. When I enquired why, they said it was because I was a new member to the program. They admitted over the phone that this was an error, but they never fixed the problem. The interest kept growing. I fought them with letters and phone calls to fix the error and adjust my balance accordingly. I paid off what I owed, according to my original agreement with them. I wrote a final check and put on it that that was my final check to pay off the account, and by cashing the check, they agreed the account was paid-in-full. They cashed this ~$850 check, but continued to show I had a balance of over $2000. Now they are reporting on my credit reports that I owe around $2500 and that the account has was charged off but that I am still past due(I am not sure how I can be charged off but still past due). I have even tried to make a deal with them, even though I do not owe them the money, but they refuse to listen to me as they hold my credit hostage. Numerous phone calls and letters, over the last 3 years, have not gotten me anywhere. When I dispute their false entries on my credit report, they claim they are right and the entries stay. I have looked into getting a lawyer and suing First USA, but I would rather not have to do that. I did some reading around this site. I saw several members mentioned declaring the entries as â??Not Mine.â? This would be true since the money they claim I owe is not mine. Is their a good way to word this? I also have seen several members mention â??Pay for deletionsâ?. How does that work? Thanks for any advice. I started with CCCS back in 1997. I owed a total of over 60K. I paid it all back in five years. Once I was done, I got my first credit reports. I was surprised by all of the negative entries. Over the last couple of years I have gotten most negative entries off, bringing my score up from a 350 to a 650. This First USA is the worst offense and has kept me from getting a decent auto loan and house loan.
Do you have any of the agreements in writing, either with FirstUSA directly or through your CCCS program? If so, I would write FUSA a strongly worded letter asking that this amount be corrected, the account listed as paid in full, and with a listing of paid as agreed. As far as noting on the check that it was payment in full, that is called a restrictive endorsements. In many states, it is not legal and they don't have to follow the instructions. You may want to consult a lawyer and see what the status of restrictive endorsements is in your state. It can be charged off and still be past due. A chargeoff simply means that they have written it off their books for tax purposes. You still owe the money, and if you haven't paid it the amount would still be past due. You can try disputing as not mine, but it sounds like you have and they have verified it. It won't hurt to try it again. Paying for deletion means that you agree to pay some amount to settle and that in return they will delete the negative items. It is usually done with a collection agency, not an original creditor. If you really don't owe the money, I wouldn't suggest this approach. If you have proof (even logs of phone calls, if you recorded date and time and who you spoke with), and if you don't get any satisfactory reply to this letter, think about filing a small claims lawsuit against them. You may also want to try using Planetfeedback to send your letter--that usually gets executive office attention.
It helps if you keep all your questions in one thread... You asked what is 'required' for them to verify. The answer... Not much... Do a search on Johnson v. MBNA and you'll see what I mean. To 'verify' that it was 'her' account, MBNA verified only her name and address, neither her SSN or DOB were on the account, because it wasn't her account, it was her ex husbands account, and they removed his information when he declared bankruptsy. However, under the Johnson v. MBNA ruling, (and starting in December under the FACTA amendments to the FCRA) there is a higher burdon on the data furnisher to perform an adequite review of the dispute before verifying, but your dispute has to be specific enough to 'prove' that they didn't adequitely review the dispute.
Thank you for your reply. I got my CSC report yesterday. The only negative on it now is the one account (It was bad enough to get me turned down for a car loan). I noticed they are complexly wrong about the date I opened the account. They are off by 7 years. They are way off on my high balance, by half. If I dispute this, and they can not verify it in 30 days, does CSC have to remove the whole account entry, or just those two they can not verify?
BUMP NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243-> Never read the fine print. There ain't no way you're going to like it.
