I was recently denied for a Sprint cell phone. It's a mystery to me because I have one business account with them already that's in good standing. They sent me a letter telling me that my credit report shows a cell phone charge-off and that was the reason for the denial. Well, I pulled all three credit reports and there's no such entry. Is this validation letter time? or should I ignore it because it's not impacting my credit scores? EXP 541 TU 575 EQ 578 yes, they're mighty low. My BK7 was discharged 12/01. Thanks for your help! Kat
Just because it's not list on CR that doesn't mean they don't have an internal chrage-off. I had the same problem, they said I had a charge off with them from 1996, and it was no where on my credit reports. After they and I investigated, - fraud department, it was found out it was a pre-paid account they said I owed $23.00 on. Finally after 6 months they cleared their internal records and I was able to get service. So I would ask them to send you, fax, mail or email you any information they have associated with your account. And keep in mind, many of the pre-paid services use sprint, and a bad account goes into Sprint's records. And also, any Sprint residential or long distance land lines, also show up on their internal records, and it seems like that stuff stays forever.
If it's prepaid how can there be a charge off. ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <> ><- <>- ><- <> ~~~ ><- <>- ><- <>
No -- my Sprint account from... 4 years ago (?) was not a pre-paid account, but a business account through my employer. I got a call from a CA about a year ago telling me that I owed Sprint $38. The CA was adding 'only' $100 for their handling fee (lucky me). So -- I had paid my final bill with Sprint. I even paid it twice because Sprint called me 6 months after the first pay't. When the CA called I asked them (on the phone) to send me proof and they said they didn't have to do that. I wasn't smart enough to send them a letter demanding validation. Those not-smart days are over, now that I've stumbled on the wonderful folks at creditnet.com. Thanks, everyone, for your replies! Kat
Sprint PCS verifies cell phone credit through a company in MA called Lightbridge. I think their notices refer to something called "Profile screening" or something similar. They do have a toll-free number if you want a copy of the report. You could then try disputing with them. SPCS might not even still have it in their system, and don't even know the w/o was with THEM. If Lightbridge can't verify, you should be in the clear. I don't think SPCS even sees the report. Just a code. Dave
The cellphone carriers keep each other informed of charge offs of cellphone accounts. This info may or may not be reported to consumer credit bureaus. But the carriers do share info. Sprint is usually the most lenient of all of the carriers (requiring only $125 deposit with a $125 monthly spending limit) for the credit challenged.
Thank you! I checked the fine print in the letter and it was ProFile screening. If they're essentially a CRA are they bound by the same laws? Meaning I can dispute this incorrect entry and have it deleted when they can't verify it? Come to think of it... if it's not on my credit report why should I even bother. It's not like I don't have plenty to deal with just with the Big Three. Kat
Re: Re: Newbie Cell Phone question I do believe that all of the cell companies use Lightbridge to check for prior problems with cell bills. I've never seen their report, so I don't know if other credit info even shows up. I guess the only benefit of getting it removed is for future cell service applications. Dave
That's not true. If it isn't on your CR, we don't know about it. <----works for Cingular. We used Lightbridge in the past, but not for that purpose. I think we used them only to monitor/track prepaid minutes and refill our prepaid cards. Now that we actually have prepaid plans built into our billing system, they (Lightbridge) are a thing of the past.
