Settlement Letter

Here is the letter I used. It is part Lizardking, part LKH.


To Whom It May Concern,


Regrettably, due to the incredible amount of endless grief you have caused me in my attempts to correct my credit report, I have been forced to file a lawsuit against Credit bureau name. I have attempted to go through the process of having inaccurate items on my credit report investigated, but you continue to give inadequate responses that lack any serious attempt to correct these inaccuracies on my report. Thus, this must reach a realistic conclusion.

Your company is currently in serious violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I have proof of mailing of demands to the companies listing negative information on my reports. These letters include demands for evidence and also include direct disputes with credit bureau name. Each violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act is cause for damages of up to $1,000 plus the potential for punitive damages.


To summarize the situation, I have sent numerous challenges to the credit reporting agencies (including your company) challenging invalid credit accounts that are listed on my credit report. Every time I challenge something on my report, I receive back a standard computer generated letter that merely states the account has been verified or as of late, that you will refuse to reinvestigate despite my offering of new and prudent information that would disprove some of the entries on my reports.



From my research, I have learned that the standard investigation is merely to contact the creditor and ask them whether the account matches with name, social security number and other standard identifying information. If the response from the creditor confirms that the numbers match their database, or if the creditor simply says â??yes this account information is correctâ?, then the account is â??verifiedâ?.


I even sent a letter to D. Van Skilling of Experian in Orange, California. He signed for this letter on August 21, 2001. As of this date, Sept. 30, 2001, I have yet to receive so much as an acknowledgment that he received my letter. Apparently, Experian/Credit Data Southwest thinks it is ok to violate the FCRA and then not respond to complaints, to try and work the problems to a mutual resolution, which I was entirely ready and hopeful for.


I have run into a brick wall trying to get this false information removed from my credit report. When I contact the credit reporting agencies, they claim that it has already been investigated and verified. When I contact the company reporting the false information, they claim it has been sold to another company. When I contact the other companies, they never take any action because that is not their business. They are only trying to collect on accounts, not correct invalid information on credit reports.

I am filing this lawsuit against credit bureau namefor the following reasons:
1) defamation
2) violation of the FCRA


. All I wanted in the first place was for inaccuracies to be corrected or deleted. I feel that I should never have had to go to this extreme to get erroneous information removed. The fact that I gave written, documented proof that one entry was entirely inaccurate, should have been enough to warrant removal of that item. Yet, I was met with â??the creditor has verified this account and it will stay as isâ?. How can a creditor verify an account they do not have, proven by the paperwork submitted? I was then told I would have to get the reporter to write a letter directly to you concerning the fact they no longer had this account. I was also told that my written proof was basically worthless and would not be considered. This, I am sure you are aware, goes against the FCRA.



I am willing to dismiss the lawsuit and save us both the cost and aggravation of fighting this out in court if you will delete the accounts in question and prevent them from reappearing on my credit report
Through the process known as blocking or cloaking. Iâ??m hopeful that you will agree, the fact that all I want is a correct credit report is not too much to ask.



The accounts I would need deleted are as follows:
1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

I look forward to your response. If you decline this offer of settlement, I will seek the full amount available in county court and a court order from the judge ordering that the information be removed.


I will be seeking to obtain a mortgage in the near future. If this invalid credit report information forces me to pay a higher interest rate than I would otherwise, I will be filing a new lawsuit against you for the difference in payments over the life of a thirty-year mortgage. Such damages could exceed $100,000 if the interest rate would be just a couple of percentage points higher than it should be with a correct report.


Please do the correct thing and resolve this issue now. It will save everyone an enormous amount of time and expense that could and should be avoided.




Sincerely,

your name

 

Here's the format I used. I basically just alleged the infractions and then listed the problems by tradeline groups. Finally, as a throwaway line, I tossed in a sentence saying they could choose to delete the tradelines in lieu of appearing in my local courtroom. Hope this helps. I like LKH's and Lizardking's as well, btw. The key would be for you to take what you like from several sources, throw in your own stuff, and then you'll have your own unique letter.

Doc

---

Date

My Name
Address

Equifax Inc.
1550 Peachtree Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309

To Whom It May Concern:

Attached is a copy of a lawsuit I filed today in My County (State) General Sessions Court against Equifax Inc. and against Thomas F. Chapman, Equifax Chairman and CEO. You have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act on multiple occasions as described herein. With respect to these FCRA violations, you have:

-- conducted grossly insufficient and incomplete investigations
-- not properly investigated disputes within the thirty days specified by law
-- damaged my credit file and defamed my character
-- negligently enabled identity theft

As a result of your willful noncompliance with Federal law, I am seeking full damages allowed under 616(a)(1)(A). My specific complaints follow:

Tradeline Name 1 (accounts xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx, and xxxxxxxxxx):

-- These loans were initially provided by Xxxx Student Funding Corporation, an entity which later dissolved. When Xxxx ceased operations, the loans were purchased by Yyyyy and were rebranded "Zzzzz." I was never formally notified of this change, and apparently neither were you; unlike the Trans Union and Experian credit files, Equifax lists these tradelines using the wrong name. Subsequent payments to Xxxx took months to properly credit to Zzzzz. I am attaching documents from Yyyyy (Zzzzz) which: a) detail all loans; and b) admit that they "incorrectly reported negative credit information" regarding these tradelines. An additional letter from Zzzzz is attached which further confirms record-keeping errors related to all such tradelines. Tellingly, this document informed me that they â??could not give [you] an estimated time when records will be corrected.â?

-- On DATE, you reported the results of my dispute regarding these Xxxx tradelines. Previous Equifax credit files had correctly listed six Xxxx tradelines with no derogatory notations, while seven other Xxxx tradelines appeared with erroneous late-pay notations. Somehow, the Equifax employee assigned to investigate my dispute made the decision to simply DELETE all of the perfect ones and to "VERIFY" the derogatory ones, a malicious and willful violation of the FCRA, despite the attached creditor documentation which substantiates the existence of all of these tradelines. I will demonstrate in court that the statistical odds of accidentally producing this result are practically nil. Your actions created an even more derogatory and erroneous credit file, which was apparently your intention.

Tradeline Name 2 (account xxxxxxxxxx):

-- On DATE, you initiated contact with Tradeline Name 2 in response to my dispute of an I-5 designation (tradeline xxxxxxxxxx). On March 9, you denied my dispute. Your inexplicable denial of this dispute was exceptionally frustrating for me, so I asked Mr. Joe Jones of Tradeline Name 2 to initiate a new contact with you, which he did on DATE, whereupon he requested that you remove the I-5 designation. When you had not done so by DATE, Mr. Jones contacted you again and repeated the request. On DATE, you finally issued a revised credit file in which the tradeline correctly appeared as I-1.

-- However, other serious errors remained with this notation. On DATE, you sent me an unrevised credit file which claimed to have verified the payment history for Tradeline Name 2. However Tradeline Name 2 has confirmed that you did not initiate interaction with them in MONTH at all. I have attached a signed statement from Tradeline Name 2 dated DATE which attests to these willful FCRA violations.

-- On DATE, you again sent an unrevised credit file which falsely claimed to have investigated my dispute regarding the details of my payment history with Tradeline Name 2. Rather than dispute with you yet again, I will produce detailed documents in court to support my contention regarding the serious errors. Moreover, one or more Tradeline Name 2 representatives will appear on my behalf in this regard as well.

You may contact me before DATE at (123) 456-7890 or to the address listed at the top of this letter. This matter can be settled simply by removing these derogatory tradelines from my credit file, in which case I will withdraw this lawsuit and you will not need to appear in My County (State). Otherwise I will aggressively pursue this case in court.

Sincerely yours,



My Name
SSN #123-45-6789

Enclosures:
Civil Warrant
Letter, Zzzzz (DATE)
Letter, Yyyyy (DATE)
Letter, Tradeline Name 2 (DATE)
Summary, Tradeline Name 2 (DATE)

 

Hey Doc,

I like your letter in the way you sort of shove it down their throats. hahaha! Way to stick it to 'em.