I'm a goverment employee subject to background investigations every 5 years. I am currently up for review and am being questioned in regards to my credit report. There is one item, an old auto loan that was repossed back in 1997. In October of 2000, I entered into a settlement agreement with the collection agency. I fullfilled my end of the bargain by paying the amount they requested in cash and in their office. They spoke with the client directly and refused to remove the account, but stated that they would ignore the credit reporting agencies request for validation so the account would be deleted. We'll I disputed the item in January of 2001, after obtaining a copy of my credit reports and the item came back validated. I thought nothing of it except that maybe someone got their wires crossed (benefit of doubt). Just recently I got my credit reports and disputed it again, and it came back validated. Luckily I have a copy of the settlement agreement which states at the bottom that the account would be removed upon my disputing it with the credit agencies. Problem is, it's the only thing that's keeping me from getting new credit / better credit and keeping my job. Do I have any recourse against the collection agency or finance company? Can I take them to court for damages at this point? HELP!!!
I think you may have recourse against the CRA's. Many here have documented cases of disputes coming back verified when in fact they were not. Send a request for procedure used to verify the item. There are sample letters here if you do a search.
It would seem to me that you would, but you would need a good attorney to get the job done. I would recommend David Szwak whom I have heard of on this board and am using for a case of my own at the present time. I picked him up as a result of a post a while back and I've heard some pretty good comments about him from other attorneys I talked to about him. Other attorneys have been mentioned on this board and I'm sure they are good too. I'd recommend you check on the board and contact all of them and pick the one you like best.
One thing you do not want to do is waste time. Once your job discovers this there probably will only be a small window of 60 or so days to get this cleared. Of course, that depends on the business.
Excellent.... I would try this... Call the credit reporting agencies and tell them you have a document that requests the item be deleted. Ask them to start an investigation, but because of the urgency of the situation and the problems happening with the mail, you would like to fax the evidence to them. They should provide you with an 800# or just ask here. Most will update the information within 5 business days. If you just do a normal investigation, you're looking at 30 days and if you have the collection agency/creditor request an update it can take up to 60-90 days. Good luck! Keep us updated.
I have made an attempt to get the CA to remove the account, but they refer me back to the agreement which says to dispute it and they will remove it. From reading your posts it looks like the only way I'm going to get this resolved is to sue either the Collection Agency, The Original Creditor or the Credit Reporting Agencies. Wouldn't it be easier to sue in small claims and name the Collection Agency as the defendant? Yes you are correct, they are already catching on to this, so no I don't have alot of time left to get this worked out.
Personally, I think the collection agency is the easiest target of the 3 if you want to get both the debt and the bad report off your record which is the only way to be absolutely certain that it gets removed and stays removed. It's not usually necessary to actually sue them for the very simple reason that if they are going to have to go to court, their favorite subject of conversation while in the courtroom is not why they broke the law. So they usually don't even want to think about going there, much less in wearing their dirty T-shirts by force while there. The second best target is the creditor for much the same reasons although you can't holler that they broke FDCPA because they are exempted from FDCPA. And although a couple of members of creditnet have had outstanding results in sueing the credit bureaus, I don't like to fiddle with the credit bureaus any more than I absolutely have to. It's too much like mud-wrestling with pigs and anyway that's the main focus of most if not all of the credit repair companies and I'm not a credit repair company at all. It's not my fault that the creditors and/or their 3rd party collectors end up thinking it's probably wiser if they remove their complaints from the debtors credit bureau files before something bad happens to them. It's their choice to make and they are free to do as they please as far as I'm concerned. If I had anything to say about it, they'd pay my customers a few thousand bucks apiece and have the court order them to take it off to boot. But that's not my decision to make. I'd think the credit bureaus ought to like that better too because then they wouldn't be bombarded by so many demands for verification and re-verification and it would reduce their workload as well.
After reading the suggestions it looks like I have to do the following: I'm going to make one more request in person to the CA to remove the debt, I'm also going to ask for a monetary amount as damages from the CA because of their breach of agreement. Do I have a good case if I go to court? If I am suspended until I resolve this matter, can I sue the CA for damages resulting from their breach?
Well, since I'm not an attorney, I'm not qualified to answer that question for you from a legal standpoint, but just off the top of my head, it seems to me that you should be able to. In the end, seems to me that you would most likely need to seek the advice of an attorney in order to get the right answer to that one.
Well, wouldn't it be easier if he submits a letter with proof and then faxes it to the CRA indicating that this was supposed to be removed/deleted? EQ Fax - 1-888-345-9399 TU Fax - 610-546-4605 EX Fax - 1-877-454-1010/972-390-3974
My advice remains the same as above... Remember if you don't start an investigation with the cra, you're possibliy looking at up to 90 days for the update. You can sue anyone, for anything, at anytime. If you're suspended, I don't think you have a case for lost wages because you admit the debt is valid, but that's just my opinion.
