Chapter 7 and charge offs, help

Brad,

Any account that was included in your BK and is in your schedules should not be reporting a charge-off. I should read something like discharged-Chapter 7. I would dispute it as never had a charge-off with XYZ account. Chances are it might just be unverifiable being from 1997 and be totally deleted. If the account comes back verified try to contact the original creditor and explain that they were in your BK and are on your BK schedule. Do this in a letter and send your proof. Inform them they must correct or delete the listing or you will file suit. Just remember, do not send any of your BK paperwork to the CRA's, it is their job to do the verifying with the creditor, not yours to make their verification easier.

Just to let you know, if you ever go for a loan with a bank, the loan officer is going to question why you have chargeoffs with a BK. Been there and had to have this fixed or had to explain before I got the loan.

 

I hope you have better luck than I did disputing them. I've been told by others (and a lawyer) that it's just a matter of the way the creditor will do their accounting and has no other impact really as the bankruptcy pretty much clarifies the issue and speaks for itself. As long as it inlcudes some reference to the discharge or your bankruptcy, it's not a big deal.

Believe me, I've been fighting the lates also that these companies reported while I was in my ch 7 and no luck with those either. Same explanation as above.

But, you never know so just give it a shot.

Good luck.

 

It's not a big deal to a cognitive human but FICO will not treat them the same if there not listed so. I saw a positive change in scores when I got all my entries listed as Included in BK. Most of them said charge off.

What I did was to send the CRA's the pages of the CH7 where the creditors are listed and tell them you want them to say included in BK. I didn't have a problem doing it this way. Even though it's not the "right" way to do things.

 

Mine says both, the "included in bk" is there. They won't budge. As usual, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't with these cras...

BTW: The only one reporting that way is discover on mine.

 

I agree with Brad 100%. If you have a discharged BK in '97, your credit profile should reflect that reality. Around four yearsafter my BK was filed, creditors were still reporting a variety of different status and even selling the accounts to collection agencies. I was lucky though, I was able to dispute the incorrect information with each of the CRA's, explain the discrepancies and I recieved new reports showing "Included in Bankruptcy" only. Some of those tradelines disappeared altogether.

KK

 

Hey! i AGREE totally, I'm just saying when I dispute the verbage it comes back verified!! What the heck can I do about it but keep disputing!!! I wouldn't even be disputing it to begin with if it didn't seem wrong in the first place. I was just saying that mine won't budge and wishing them good luck!!

 

You said you have tried disputing these with the creditors? Do you have your copies of your correspondence with the green CRR? If so, then send a letter to upper management at the creditor threatening legal action. Let them know they are in violation of the FCRA for knowingly reporting the account inaccurately. Send copies of all your previous correspondence as well as your discharge and the page of the schedule where the account is listed (black out all the other accounts except for the one in question). Also send the page in the credit report(s) that contain the particular inaccurate account (also black out all the other accounts). Do this only after you have disputed an inaccurately reported account and it comes back verified. Usually customer service is useless when contacting a creditor regarding issues such as these. Nine times out of ten they are just as good as the customer service you get at the CRA's.

If you do enough research using the internet, you will find officers of the company for different creditors. You should get a response and a contact to deal with at the creditor. Don't be surprised, but sometimes the CRA will be stubborn about correcting an entry even though an update has been sent. In that case contact the source at the creditor by phone if possible once again, get documentation from the creditor that they have sent an update. At that point, if you dispute the stubborn tradeline with the CRA and once again they verify, prepare to file a small claims suit against the CRA. I have a couple on my one of my credit reports that I will probably have to file a suit against, but have not done so yet.

It's your report and you do have the right to get this stuff "included in BK" without any charge-off notations. A lender wants to see accounts showing as included in BK when you have a BK public record and no charge offs with a BK. It is a lot cleaner.

 

This is related to this topic and also is very interesting.

http://www.bayhouse.com/credit-forum/showthread.php?threadid=358

KK

 

I'm off to write another letter and start photocopying my paperwork!! Thanks for the tips. I'll give it another go!

My scores are in the 600's, but ANYTHING that may help I'll try. I've brought this topic up before but didn't really get this type of direction so I thank you for your help!

newstdt

 

I found the post interesting. So does this mean the wording can have an impact on your score "included" versus "discharged"? Some of my accounts say "included" and some say "discharged." If it does and the accounts should really state "discharged," then perhaps I will have to try to dispute through the CRA's first, see what happens, and then go back to writing more letters or calling the contacts provided to me for a couple of my former creditors.

Maybe the FCRA needs to be amended towards a consistency in how these account should report. This way there would be no confusion and a more clearer determination of FCRA violations.

Thanks for posting the link.

 

After I read the posting on Bayhouse, I started thinking that the statement "Included in BK" should be the status between between the initial filing of the BK and the final discharge date. Then after the court discharges the debts, all accounts should be reflecting a status of "Discharged". This is my assumption, who knows what it really should be showing.

 

That's the same way I interpreted the post. Maybe I do need to go after this again. At least I have no charge off's. The worst thing that happened to me was I had some accounts reporting as Chapter 13 when it was a Chapter 7 that I filed.

 

Definitely go after those 8 accounts reporting the "charge-offs." Those accounts are incorrect. Try do dispute through Experian as a not yours or never had a charge off with XYZ creditor. Going the way of the never had a charge off would be the better way to go. When the creditor receives the dispute they will probably look to see if the account was truly a charge off. If you do a not yours, the creditor will check to see if the account is yours or not during verification, they will not go out of their way to correct it. In other words, they will get a communication from Experian saying Mr. ABC states this account is not his, if the creditor decides to respond they will do so as a "yes, it is his account," but not "yes it is his account and by the way, this account should not be reporting a charge off." I found this out through one of the creditors. If Experian asks a straight question, the creditor will give a straight answer and nothing else.

Don't state to Experian this was not a charge off, it was included in a BK. You will more than likely get a letter from Experian stating to send in your BK papers. Never send those to them unless it is absolutely necessary. This means they will not bother to do their job of verifying and take the lazy way out. On top of that you risk the chance that the creditor will not bother to respond to Experian thus a possible deletion of the account. Now if the account comes back verified, then you need to contact the creditor and ask them to correct the account or you will not hesitate to sue them. When you contact the creditor in writing you can include your paperwork because it is their responsibility to report the account correctly. Get their response to correct in writing and if Experian refuses to correct it, sue them. Most likely you will either get a deletion from Experian or you will have to go to the creditor and they will correct it on their end and this will filter through to Experian and be corrected.

 

Wrong post