Hello Everyone! This is my first time posting here and I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I need some advice for a dispute I'm planning to file. I just got a copy of my credit report from Experian and there is an item that has "imcomplete" information. Here's what happened (sorry so long winded - it's kind of complex): My husband and I bought our first brand new car in January of 1999. After making a payment or two he lost his job, our rent was $1400 a month etc etc...you get the picture. The loan then went into reposession. However, we had moved out of state and they could not locate us. My mother then agreed to help us catch up the loan. I contacted the bank and found out the amount to bring the loan current. I then sent the bank a cashiers check for $4,000.00 and we resumed making payments. A few months later we considered trading the car in and getting something with lower payments. However after the car dealership pulled our credit report we were informed that the loan was still in "charge off" or "reposession" status and they could not take it in as a trade. I then contacted the credit union for an explanation and was told the account would stay a "charge off" or until it was completely paid off. In the meantime they did not report the $4,000.00 payment we made or the subsequent payments we made on our credit report. Also on my credit report it states the charge off amount as $16,549 when we actually had the balance paid down to around $10,500. After much whining the bank agreed that they would refinance the loan. We submitted the refinance application and were told that the refinance should be completed before month end and that we would be notified of our new payment amount (they were going to lower the payment also) and the new due date etc. I remember asking if I should send it our regular payment and was told to "hold off" since the loan was being refinanced. Needless to say the lady was a complete idiot and never followed through. We then tried contacting her repeatedly for over 9 months trying to get this resolved. In the meantime they started reporting late payments on our credit report (even though they didn't report the payments we made). After climbing the managerial ladder the V.P. finally stepped in and after we explained the situation refinanced the loan and lowered our payments. They did however make sure to tack on over $1,200 in interest (from the missed payments while they were screwing around) so now our balance is back up over $12,000. However, when the loan was refinanced instead of converting the charge off to a current account they created a new entry for the new loan and left the charge off on our credit report but with a zero balance. So we basically have to entries (one negative and one positive for the same car). The advice I need is should I aim to have the charge off deleted or ask that all of the payments we made be recorded (I have proof for all of the payments). I don't know if we have the right to ask that it be deleted. I know we got royally screwed but I'm not sure exactly how I should rectify the situation with the dispute. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Beverly
Sorry everyone...one more question..... The credit report I got was from Experian. Now the FCRA states that if the record is corrected or deleted the original creditor must then send instructions to all national bureaus for the change to be made. Therefore, do I only have to dispute with Experian or should I dispute this with all 3 bureaus??? Thanks again, Beverly
All 3 - get your other 2 reports and work with all of them. They do not communicate with each other (that we know of). I think the simplest place to start is to dispute the chargeoff and late payments. You can do that online, actually, using your credit report number. I wouldn't go trying to tell the whole story. I would just say "incorrect status." I know your story sounds reasonable and it makes sense to you for someone to listen, but no one who works for a CRA is going to read it all, believe me, and you do not want to volunteer information to the CRA's without checking here first. It's like the Miranda - anything you say, can and will be used against you. So, go dispute it on Experian, and then go order your other 2 reports. If you have been turned dwon for credit. you can get them for free, just follow the instructions.
I'm only going to answer the one question at this time. I just need to think about the rest of your question a bit more before I can feel confident to answer the rest. But you should only attempt to change or dispute items on those bureaus that have the listing. If a bureau does not have a listing of the item, then don't dispute with them. They won't know what you are talking about and you might give them information that you didn't want them to have.
