Hi, I have been victimized by a guy who claimed himself as a credit repair expert, took the money, made a bit of progress and now vanished. The thing is, I don't know how he handled all individual baddies. Before he started working a year ago (yeah, he did work on my files!!!), I had -2 open accounts : Credit Union CC(CL 1000, no baddies), Chase (CL 1500, one 30d late) -3 closed accounts : Amex Blue (charge-off), Credit Union Old Car Loan (4 30d, 1 60days), Wells Fargo (90 days, paid at the branch and closed by gredit grantor) all about 2.5 years old.... I made my own progress last 12 months (not that scam's) - Goodwill to Chase worked and 1 30day is gone. - Opened secured Wells Fargo Visa and increased collateral to $5000 gradually(their maximum) - Just graduated to unsecured WF visa with new line of full $5000. - Added myself as an AU for two good accounts with massive CL Here's what he left on my credit reports and I would like to have your advice. I know he tried to delete not just tradelines but the whole bad account information.(He told me so) 1. Credit Union Old Car Loan gone in TU but stayed in EQ, EX(verified). 2. Wells Fargo (90 days, paid/closed) stayed, but in EX only, there's Comment:"Account information disputed by consumer (Meets requirement of the FCRA)" 3. Amex was verified and remained unchanged; In EQ only, this reports current I was trying to figure out how he handled all these and what kind of letters he possible wrote. He probably wrote directly to CRA regarding all three accounts listed, right? I wish I could find this SOB and ask before I bury him. Anyway, I am on my own now taking over all these. Here are my outlines of tasks for each derag. account. Any comment about strategy, sample letter or anything will be greatly appreciated!!! As for #1, I'd be careful not to wake up the sleeping dog. Write letters of validation to EQ,EX and cross my fingers. This seems the only approach I can take. Anything else out there I should consider? Any sample letter that works the best? =) As for #2, I was hoping to get rid of it with Goodwill, but phone rep was very strict and stubborn. However, I found out that this "dispute" thing in the comment had been there for ever. She told me that this account still is in dispute since I(or that scam) disputed with CRA AUGUST,2006!!!! Sounded like a great thing, but I am actually stuck not knowing what to do with it. She also asked me if I wanted to cancel the dispute and I said NO. What's more confusing is that this account reports as current or pays as agreed in all three reports. As for #3, With assumption that he never wrote directly to OC, I have fired off Nutcase type letter early this month. Thank you all for looking and sharing my pain....
Eh . . . how much did you pay if you don't mind me asking? Was the company a licensed credit service organization, member of the Better Business Bureau, bonded, etc.? Sounds as though this person/entity did "some" good but, perhaps charged quite a bit. Then again, I could be assuming far to much. In any event, if this was an actual company, sounds like you could have a claim under the Credit Repair Organizations Act. This would be a good way to get some, all, or more money back than you actually paid. I have a pet peeve for people like this because it makes it so difficult for legit, licensed companies who follow the law to conduct business. Without blatant advertising here, this guy could have simply referred you to a consumer attorney after disputing some of this stuff "if" he pinpointed the inaccuracies. More often than not, these credit repair "experts" have never been to law school, have no idea how to hook furnishers of information under the FCRA/FDCPA and therefore, hope that the ole' "not mine" dispute will work. As I've said before, folks really need to do there homework before engaging in Agreement's with credit repair agencies. Check their Secretary of State filings, see if they are members of the Better Business Bureau and if they have a slew of complaints, check to see how many times they're been sued, and check out the owners credentials; i.e., are they legally trained. In any event, you may have no further redress with Experian after his disputes. They are beginning to allow only one dispute per tradeline and if you're lucky, two maximum. Stay away from online disputes with them because this virtually gaurantees only one bite at the apple. Moreover, put everything in writing for the purposes of a paper trail. With that said, I would address the remaining derogatories in this fashion: 1) Amex: See if they will allow you to get into their Oasis program. They will not delete a tradeline absent litigation and you will have a difficult time accruing any FCRA violations against them. You may have a shot if the underlying debt is relatively short or if their claim would be time-barred. In my experience, the best that you can hope for is that they will fail to mark the account as being disputed. This is a rather dubious claim in of itself but, if you don't have the money to pay them and again, the underlying debt is small, you may consider instituting a civil action against them in attempt to achieve deletion. As with all disputes, target the dates of status. See if they are reporting one or a date of initial delinquency. If so, see if it corresponds to the balance history data field. If not or if they aren't reporting these fields, you have something to work with. Often times, you can hook the credit reporting agencies with this as well for failure to employ reasonable procedures to maintain maximum accuracy. 2) Wells has covered their bases with marking the account as being in dispute (yes, failure to do so is an FCRA violation under 1681s-2b). They have to report it in this fashion. In essence, that 90-day late is not hurting you much if it's older than two years. Apply the above and see what transpires. 3) As for the old car loan, I'd adopt the above as well. Again, the older the better and if it's more than two years, it's not as bad as you'd think. From what you've conveyed, your FICO's should be around a 600 if AMEX is reporting the charge-off each and every month. If not, you should be in or around a 640 to 660. With the right touch here and there, you could feasibly be at or near a 700 within two to three months.
Thank you a million, Apex. I just had a thorough look at the AMEX account in all three reports. Oh, by the way, the collection was about 3k by AMEX and paid on 07/2005 almost immediately after they started scaring me. I was once interested in Oasis but if they don't offer deletion(yes! I am greedy) I am not so into restoring relationship with them because I was recently added as an AU of my wife's decent card. I just want to delete the key deragatory account info! Anyway, upon closer examination of my AMEX in all three, all three indeed are quite different. Interestingly in EQ, it's collection account; paid and closed, but showed payment history all satisfactory during 04/2003~05/2005 before I defaulted. Also date closed is wrong as well as date of last activity. In Ex, it's verified on 06/2006 and basically all other dates (D opened, D of status, Reported since, last reported, even collection date) are 04/2003 which is the date that I opened this. No history displayed. In TU, they reveal the least amount of info and seem accuratest of all. So there are indeed a lot of inaccuracies. As soon as I recieve any response from them regarding my OC verification, I will start fireworks.. Yes, about WF, it doesn't seem to have as big an impact. What's really weird about this is that it keeps reporting. It has payment history of last month even though it was closed 10/2004 and even some show current/pays as agreed. Do you think this is something I can pick on, too? Oh, my lord. You are dead on about the scores! I am on 637-668... Scary. =) To Apexcrsvc... He was an individual who pretended( now I know) to have founded his own company. I knew he wasn't a lawyer, but he worked for a lawyer. I will tell you how much I paid or who he is if you send me a personal message. I definitely paid a LOT esp. for one deletion out of 12ish. I know how annoyed you should be, because even that swindler told me he had hard time advertizing his business due to the fact that so many of them are out there fooling people. What an irony...
