Hello everyone i am new to this forum and I am helping i can get some input and help. I was the victim of a fraud/identity theft, my brother used my personal information to open up a credit card under my name and decided to never pay it. He put an address down in which i never lived, so all billing statement were mailed to that address, i never saw anything. The account was bought out by a collections agency, got a bill from them one day and was like, what is this???? They investigated my claim and found me not responsible for this account. I had a responsible party affidavit filled out and the account was turned over to him. However the original credit card company refuses to work with me, they dont want to hear what happened and now this deliquent credit card is destroying my credit. I sucessfully worked with experian to delete this information from my credit profile, however the other two refuse to delete it. I have fought and fought with them but i am getting nowhere but frustrated. Any help from anyone would be appreciated. On a side question. MY credit scores are 712 with experian and 644 and 659 with the others, i have 2 auto loans, a boat loan and a student loan i pay on monthly, how long will it take for me to increase my credit score up to maybe 700 with the two lower ones?
How frustrating! I had this happen to a friend of mine as well, and it took a really long time for him to get things cleared up. Be patient and persistent, and you should eventually be able to repair the damage this has done to your credit history. First, did you ever file a police report or did you decide not to because it was your brother? If you do have some sort of police report documenting what happened, you may find it easier to work with the CRAs and the OC since they may take things more seriously. Then again, I can certainly understand why you may have chosen to not file a police report. A letter should have gone out to the credit card company and the CRAs, explaining that your brother's activities were actively hidden from you and that he had no permission do what he did. If you did file a criminal complaint, that information should also be included in the letter. Now, I'm assuming you've done this already but haven't had success with anyone other than Experian? Is that correct? Oh, and as far as your FICO scores go, the two that are lower should definitely see a nice increase as soon as you take care of removing these negative marks. In fact, they'll probably both jump up above 700, just like your Experian score has.
Yes I did file a police report. I showed that to Equifax and Transunion and it hasnt done anything. The original creditor will not help me at all unless they have a fraud letter from me which i dont have.
Did you not report the fraud to the OC when you found out about it? I don't see how they, or the CRAs for that matter, can simply ignore a police report and your letter explaining what happened. You just have to make sure it gets into the right hands. How high have you escalated the matter at the CRAs? Don't just talk to the first wimpy CS agent you get on the phone. You need to ask for a supervisor that actually has some pull and then provide all your documentation directly to that person. Be persistent, it's their responsibility to report correct information.
Yes I did report the fraud to the OC when i got the letter from the debt collection company. I told them what happened and got the response sorry, cant help you, you need to call the collections company. I am on my 3rd letter to equifax and transunion. I finally sent a letter to the original creditor explaining what has happened. The did speak with a lawyer who told me i have a case. Regardless if the person is arrested or not i have a case. This whole situation has been frustrating.
