Let me explain: About 3-4 years ago I opened a department store account with Upton's. I only used the card once or twice, mainly to build credit and get special discounts. In 1999 the company went out of business completely and closed all of their stores. Being that I was still relatively uninformed with regard to credit, I didn't even think about making sure that the account (which did not have a balance at this point) would report as closed--my stupid mistake, right up there with shredding everything containing the original acct. number. I notified Equifax of this situation a year ago and they updated it to "closed at consumer's request"--no problems. However, just a few weeks ago I pulled my Experian report and it still reports as open! I called Experian to begin the great runaround--Exp. says to call the creditor and provides a phone number. When I contact the creditor (having been xferred around numerous times), they say the account doesn't exist anymore b/c of the company's BK, so it is Experian's responsibility to update the info. Experian then refused to report it as closed because it never was reported by the creditor that way--the best they can do is include my comment stating that b/c of the company going under, the account is actually closed but can never be officially updated to that status. I have since received a page with that comment on it. Your thoughts? Let well enough alone, or push for that closed status? Any lenders out there who can tell me how that would look to them if they were to pull this report? Sorry so long--thanks all in advance for your replies!
i had something on the same lines happen to me. It seems like anything of mine with the name AVCO was all over my reports. turns out, since avco is no more, and went through 2 name changes since, i just disputed the tradelines. no company, no proof, no report in 30 days to credit bureau, thus removal. in your case, they would i imagine show it as a paid accout. try that, it should help shawn
I have never had to dispute anything yet (but I will see my TU report for the first time soon, so stay tuned, LOL)--what's the best way to go about this? Having them add that comment to my report pretty much told them that I acknowledge the account as mine. I looked in the sample letters section but didn't really see anything that covered this topic. Anybody have ideas? TIA
Try disputing some detail they have listed on the account - like incorrect balance - something along those lines. They delete entire lines of credit if they can't verify the balance when disputed. Perhpas that would just get it deleted instead of putting a statement on it. I wouldn't put a statement on anything. They only care about the score anyway. You get a borderline score, perhaps someone looks at the details on the report.
Breeze, do you think it would be possible to dispute the actual existence of the account with Experian? If the creditor says the account doesn't exist, how can it still report as anything? They wouldn't be able to prove that the account even exists. Your thoughts? I know this is small potatoes compared to what a lot of others are battling right now, but this one just doesn't make sense to me.
