My father-in-law received a letter from TU today. It goes like this: We received a dispute regarding your credit report from a credit repair ageny. Our experience with that agency shows that they routinely and knowingly dispute accurate information. We believe this practice violates the Federal Credit Repair Organization Act. For this reason, we consider their dispute to be frivilous and we will not take action on it.. Under Federal law, if you beleive any item on your credit report is inaccurate or incomplete, and you notify us, we will re-verify the information at absolutely no cost to you. If this is the case, please submit your dispute to us and identify the item(s) you believe are inaccurate, and describe specifically why you believe the information is inaccurate. We will investigate and respond to you in writing within 30 days, at no cost to you. Please note that we do not accepta disputes from third parties unless accompanied by a notarized power of attorney that authoriez a licensed attorney or a family member to represent you, or if the power of attorney is unlimited and irrevocable. If you believe the credit repair agency misrepresented their services to you, and you would like to be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies to file a complaint, let us know and we will provide you a referral. Signed TU What a joke this letter is. I love the "at no cost to you" part as well as the "we will re-verify the information..." part. Hmmmm, re-verify? I thought they were supposed to investigate. Not just re-verify something that is already on the report. My father inlaw now wants to send this letter to Lexington to break the deal he made with them and get his money back. Anyone who has experience with Lexington, have you ever seen one of the letters they send to the CRA's? Do they look like they are from you, or from a credit repair company? I know there is a letter floating on the board, probasbly in the sample letter section about this very thing (something to the effect of telling the CRA you're not using a credit repair co. and even if you were they have no right to interfere with you) or something of the sorts. Suggestions welcome
[Editor's note: Sorry guys, those letters were contributed by Lexington on a time-limited basis. Lexington asked that the letters not reappear, and we promised to honor that request. PBM, 06.08.02.] Here are some letters that Lexington posted here as samples of what they use. This was posted in April of 2001. Here are the letters Author: Sam (208.187.200.7) Date: 04-10-01 01:27 Per Jayson's post, here are four dispute letters plucked from our database at Lexington. We will leave them here on the board for the next 24 hours to give all of the regular visitors a chance to read them. We hope that they assist you in your efforts of restoring your credit. You will notice that each letter contains several key elements: a list of items in dispute, a clear indication of the nature of the dispute (i.e. whether the lateness of the account or its entire existence is in dispute), a desired outcome, and hypothetical reasoning why there may be erroneous information on the report. Our studies have shown that disputes written in common language achieve the best results. Although some of our letters are not eloquent (to say the least), they serve a purpose â?? to blend in. We take great care to make sure that our disputes do not stand out or â??smellâ? of credit repair. The first two letters are especially effective when challenging accounts that are very damaging (charge off's, collections, etc.). The purpose of these two letters is to completely eradicate any existence of the accounts with no regard for salvaging any good payment history associated with them: [Letters removed by PBM]
Lexington claims a greater success rate with these homemade-sounding letters than with legalistic FCRA-quoting ones that sound like "dispute letter #1" from any credit repair manual. On that score, I certainly believe them. On the other hand, I wonder how TU knew that the particular letter you referenced came from Lex -- interesting! Doc
LKH- Thanks for posting those letters. Doc- Originally I thought a "homemade" type letter could possibily work better than a letter that hits hard with alot of legal language, however, after reading those template letters LKH posted, I can see why TU finally caught on. Even if they have more letters (which I'm sure they do) than what has been posted, if they all start out like that even the "top notch rocket scientists" at TU are bound to catch on. One more thing. I'm not sure where Lexington is, however, lets say they are in Texas, and the consumer is in NY. Wouldn't the CRA wonder why an alleged 'consumer' initiated dispute is coming from way over in another state from where they live?
It's my understanding that they use a network of contract employees to mail those letters from just about every big metro area. I could be wrong about that, though. Doc
That makes sense. BTW, the TU letter never specifically mentions Lexington, just that this particular credit repair agency sends these type letters alot and are known for disputing items that are known to be accurate. So I wonder if this was just some scare tactic, but in reality they don't know who the credit repair agency is. Do you think he should drop Lex or fight back at TU?
Dunno, lol, but if he remains with Lexington he needs to forward that correspondence back to his assigned paralegal asap. As for dropping Lex, here are a few considerations. (Pardon the pedantics; I realize you know all this, but what the hell, ahem.) 1) Has he seen any results yet, or is this his first experience? What about from the other two CRAs? 2) Is he the type who is interested, able, willing, and conscientious enough to "catch the credit addiction" like us Creditnet mavens and do it himself? If so, he might find it to be a fun pasttime... we'll welcome "mindcrime's uncle" with open arms, lol. 3) Alternately, would you be willing to do it for him? (Not a bad idea if you feel like taking that on, assuming that your relationship with him would support that interaction of course.) Doc
When I was using Lexington my letters were postmarked from Santa Ana, CA. I live in Las Vegas, NV. I got one of the letters returned to me because Experian closed their PO box. The people who were around here at the time will remember my infamous "SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!" letter. I was beyond furious at its contents.
I think TU is bluffing. I think they suspect that the letter is from a credit repair agency, but unless Lex really really screwed up, I don't believe that they know it or could prove it. I think I would have to call their bluff, hehe. I got one of the early letters accusing me of using a credit repair agency. I sent them a letter thanking them for the compliment, and assuring them that it was me writing the letters.
Think of how much much money they make sending out that crap though. It's funny really. Could you imagine making 50 bux to send a letter that says, " Hey! That ain't mine!" LMAO!!!!! Gib
This is his first experience. So far he has received nothing back from either of the other two CRA's. Unfortunately he's not the type. He's very busy during the week and his wife has just gone through back surgery and is gearing up for hip surgery in a couple of months, so he has his hands full. I'll tell him about the warm welcome though LOL Yes, I would be willing. Our relationship is getting stronger, especially since we've moved closer to them. However I have not broached the subject (of me helping him our/ doing the credit work for him) as of yet. Maybe I'll talk to him about in tonight. Thanks for all your help Doc, appreciate it
I just searched the board for the phrase "suffer the consequences"... There were 101 postings, almost all of them inconsequential, except one... One stood out above the rest. Posted by an apparently precious woman nicknamed "Doris K." (where oh where is our esteemed "Doris K." now?), this message broaches no pretense. Doris tells it like it is. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=14131#post14131 I think I would pay Doris to write CRA disputes. Doc
Speaking of esteemed members, how about Steven Z and J Edgar, 2 of the original creditnetters who we haven't seen in ages.
Being somewhat new to the board I went back and read some of Doris's posts. She was kinda feisty, lol Hope she is well and can see why she's missed.
Doris' post about her daughter LOL about Doris' post about her "hard headed little heifer" of a daughter. Wonder if she ever wrote those letters that her mom wouldn't write for her, and wonder if her daughter kept on applying for those CC's. Doris did say she was a little old lady from Texas, and I guess Texas women have a rep for being a lil' fiesty. BTW, anyone ever been in the Texas Panhandle with the wind roaring across the acres of nada, with a few snow flurries mixed in? Those heifers <<<definition: bovine females>>> DO have enough sense to group together in a crowd, usually with their flanks all to the middle, and form their own form of a wind-break. They know innately that it's more comfortable sticking together than hanging their rear ends out by themselves.... Life lessons from cows, who'dda thought? Just a Panhandle girl at heart,
