This is kind of a follow-up to apost a few lines down. Starting to clean up after Ch.7 BK. Have a couple of credit cards reporting amounts "charged off" and with balances due. It seems the general recommendation is to start with a "not mine" letter. What is a "not mine" letter exactly? Are you really telling the credit bureau this was not your debt? How is it worded in the letter? If I say it's not mine (but it is), can I get in trouble later for that? I'm a little scared of doing this, and really appreciate your advice. Thanks.
Dear CRA I do not have an account with ABC Creditor for 123.87. Please delete this incorrect tradeline. Thanks. Sincerely, John Smith ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The first 2 or 3 disputes generally meet a lot of success. Later it gets tougher. If you haven't had a chance yet you want to call CRA and have them remove any old addresses before you dispute. "I never lived at XYZ Street. Please delete."
The CRA's aren't going to send the FBI out to investigate. I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for disputing an account as "not mine". Besides, even though the accounts can be verified as belonging to you, what if its an actual case of identity theft? It's simply not worth the CRA's time to call the cops everytime an account is disputed as "not mine". And if they did, the cops and DA's wouldn't listen to them anyway. They have much greater priorities to use their finite resources on.
Would you recoomend a newby start with cleaning up the old addresses with the CRAs? back in college I moved alot so I can definetly clean up a few from years ago? How many should one leave on the report? What is safe?
You only want your current address on the report. Simply call the CRA. Say I never lived at 123. I never lived at 234. I never lived at 345. Simple, easy and definately the first step.
The addresses should be first things disputed and no other disputes till they are removed. With some CRA's refusing to reinvestigate after several attempts any edge a person could get can't hurt. In addition, if you have or there is the possibility of you having a judgement(s) on your credit reports, use a friends address or some other address you have never used before when pulling your reports. That means there is a chance you can get your current address removed, and since judgments generally don't list social security numbers due to privacy concerns, it shouldn't be too hard to theorectically get the judgment removed because all the CRA has to verify the judgment is your name.
a "not mine" dispute, even if fabricated isn't breaking any law that i know of.. if they can't verify it's yours, it has to come off whether or not it it true.
About the address disputes: you mean that I should write to the credit bureaus and say "I have never lived at xxx" even though I DID live there? I can see telling them "I DO NOT live at xxx" since I now live somewhere else, but to say I NEVER lived there???? I really don't want to end up in jail or something. Are y'all sure this is okay to do?
I like to look at the CRA's as Starbucks or Walmarts. They are just private companies that report what creditors tell them to. I don't feel real obligated to let Starbucks know where I used to live.
thats a good one! i have addresses and employers listed with equifax since '92. didn't know this was a bad thing either.....
