All, I have a question regarding collection accounts. I have two of them on my credit report and I have disputed them on the basis of wrong dates, and they have both come back as verified. What do I do now? Should I wait to dispute again, or should I make up some excuse and send them right back. These accounts are paid collections. Thanks, Illini
(Marie, this response is now based on what you just taught me).. Illini...how did you word your dispute based on dates?? Specifically, that is!
I said that the date opened was after the date reported since and therefore, this could not be correct.
OK..I would just say (as the wise one Marie suggests)..I have never had an account with XXX opened on XXXX. Period. It worked for me!
You would say that even though I have already disputed it on the basis of dates? If so, how long should I wait before disputing?
If you don't have an active dispute ON THESE items, I'd do it now. And, yes, I would not worry about what you said before. Which CRA are we talking about?
Yup, just do an online and click the box saying you have more information and use that sentence only!
In theory, what should happen is this: If you say the account isn't yours, and there's no verification at all (no contact) then the account is deleted completely. If you say 0 balance or something... then if the creditor doesn't respond the item in question is supposed to go in your favor (eg: the balance is changed to 0). But we often times see good accounts "bleeped" or removed completely over simply trying to get a balance corrected. So, regarding a collection account. You always want any collection account to be deleted entirely. So you want to word a collection investigation so that it'll be removed entirely. Now, likely the CRA didn't even contact the collection agency. So, the underlying issue is: is the collection paid? If you don't deal with the underlying debt, it'll just come back to haunt you (with them or with another collection agency). You can always also put pressure on the collection agency to remove it with validation letters... since we don't know the specifics on this one we don't know exactly how to make sure the issue doesn't reappear from the collection agency...
Here is the total story. It is a collection for an old phone bill. It has been paid off for over one year. I have disputed in on the basis of wrong dates reported on my credit report, and it has come back as verified. This is an entry on my Experian report, which shows on all three, but I have only tried to dispute it on Experian. What should my next course of action be? Thanks, Illini
Well, you only have several choices. You dispute with the CRAs in some form or another saying "not mine". and hope the creditor doesn't respond. Go ahead and at least dispute with the other 2. They may drop. Experian is notorious for faking investigations. You could now ask Experian how they investigated. You're asking for a procedural description. see what they send you. Call the creditor and see if there are any notes about the item being verified. If not, try to get it in writing that Experian hasn't contacted them either by phone or by mail. Most creditors will send this to you. If you can get that far, you have leverage. Either Experian will not send you a procedural description and / or the creditor will say Experian faked the verification. Something else that will help you. If it's an account from a previous address, call up before redisputing and get that old address removed. It's one less identifier. (Do it with all 3 CRAs). Hope this helps.
Thanks for the info, I will try these suggestions. Does anyone know if you can ask for verification of dispute through online means?
