HI, Heres my situation. I have an account on my credit report from Wal-Mart that was opened by my mother. I did not give her permission to open it, but thats my mother so i am not gonna press charges. Any way, the account is closed by the creditor and delinquent and has been so for at least 120 days! I would like to pay it off in exchange for deletion of the negative tradelines and the comment closed by consumer. heres my letter. i am willing to pay the full amount which is about $845. Do you think I could get them agree to less. What do you think of the letter? Any suggestions? Wal-Mart P.O. Box 103027 Roswell, GA 30076-9027 Re:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx To Whom It May Concern: I am writing a letter to discuss account # XXXX-xxxx-xxx-xxxx. On June 6, 2005, I alerted you that the account was opened fraudulently. At that time I was told that an investigation would be conducted and that I would receive an affidavit in the mail within 30 days. On July 14, 2005, I called to inquire about the affidavit again. I was told that the investigation can take up to 90 days. I would like to propose an agreement to settle this matter is less time. As the details of our conversations indicate, this appears to be a case of familial fraud. The name Cynthia Wiggins listed on the account is that of my mother. The original Warrenton, NC address is hers and I of course once used that address. Due to my relationship to the perpetrator, I am not willing to press charges. Our tenuous relationship does not need the added stress of a criminal suit. However, I do recognize that this account must be settled and I am willing to do so. I will pay your company the amount of (total balance) as payment in full for the full satisfaction of this account. Upon receipt of the above payment, Wal-Mart has agreed to delete the negative tradeline entry on my 3 credit reports and to report it closed by the consumer. Contingent upon the receipt of the amount of (total balance) this account is considered paid in full and the matter permanently closed. If you agree with these terms please acknowledge with an authorized signature and return it to me. You, wal-Mart, agree the terms herein are confidential and you, Wal-Mart, have the authority to make such decisions. No payment will be made without written confirmation. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledgment, I will immediately mail a cashiers check to Wal-Mart. ____________________________________ Printed name and position of company officer ____________________________________ Signature and of company officer and date Sincerely,
You can propose it, but without filing a police report, or signing an affidavit of fraud, they will probably take your money, and leave the negative tradeline on your reports. They could care less whether or not you want to turn in a family member, and may even think you deserve bad credit if you don't. In fact, they may view your offer as an attempt by you to get out of a bad credit report for an account you actually opened. By paying it you are admitting you owe it. How can you stop this from happening again in the future? Have you placed a fraud alert on your credit reports?
My mother did the same thing to me. I ended up suing the bejeezus out a bunch of companies for allowing her to do so (she was deceased, however). You are a victim of identity theft. You can report it and not tell them that it was her. Then once you've informed them of it (sent them the police report, declaration, etc.) and they refuse, then you sue. I've been there. You might just have to . But they will most likely settle after being served.
By the way, check your state's laws on Accord and Satisfaction or Restrictive Endorsements. If you're dead set on paying this or time is of the essence, then that may be an option.
Thanks for the response guys. I had a fraud alert on my report when it happened, but I guess because the address I used was actually an one of my old addresses it was opened without my being notified. After reading your post I think I might wait for the affadavit and go ahead and file a report without listing a name. If my mom and I live in different states, which state should I file the report with? I will also be looking into the Accord and Satisfaction or Restrictive Endorsements laws in my state. hualum
You file the police report where you are. You are victimized where you live. You don't have to chase some id thief around the country, or the world, filing police reports everywhere they strike. With a fraud alert on your reports, the company opening a new account was supposed to have contacted you first, whether an old address was shown on your reports or not. Just as in your case, whether committed by a family member, or by a new tenent, mail going to old addresses is often how fraudulent accounts are opened. In addition, many reports contain old addresses, along with new addresses. You placed a fraud alert, for good reason, and they ignored it. They don't deserve that excuse.
Fraud alerts don't mean "ignore it if the address is on your report". An address gets on your report whenever someone has applied for and opened an account using your identity and that address. The CRA assumption is that any account opened with your identity is you, so whatever address was used is one of your addresses. That hardly allows a check of addresses as a reliable verification that an applicant is you, only that they succeeded in opening an account. Adding to that, PRM offers get sent to any of the addresses shown on your CR, whether you live or lived there or not. CRAs sell addresses, and if you have several, they will sell them all. At the offer level, they assume that security will be checked later when an application is sent, so why be careful up front. They have to send out too many offers to get even one application to be careful. CRA identity information based security is circular.
You think it is quite reasonable to expect that if you pay a debt you do not owe, the creditor should graciously remove their negative report. Their view is more likely that if you pay it, you owed it, so the negative should remain. Why else would you pay it unless it was your debt? You were just trying to get out of it, after all it was your address, so you get what you deserve for causing them trouble. Although you might try accord and satisfaction, you may not get what you want, they may either reject it, or take your money, and claim they have no agreement with you. If you are not careful with where you send it, in many states they can take your money, and there is no binding agreement created.
