Dealing With CRA's
I am very frustrated right now. I have two negautive items on my credit report that are errors but am having a really difficult time trying to get them off.
1st: Tenants moved out of a rental with Cable bill unpaid. Six months later it shows up on my report. I call the collector, they check their records and agree that it is not my account. However, they say that this is a problem with the bureau. They say they sent the right info and social but the bureau made the mistake on my report so I should deal with the bureau. I ask for a letter stating this but they say their policy is not to send a letter, nothing they can do. I call the bureau and they say the information was posted as it was given to them and they simply report it. I have to wait thirty days for the collection co. to respond or they will remove it from my account. Nothing they can do.
2nd: Old gas company, bill was long since paid off however it is being reported as open collection. Called the Gas company, they verified and sent a letter. Experian says they need info from collection agency as that is who reported to them, not gas company. Call collection agency, they verify that there should be no account but say that all they can do is send info to Credit bureau. They can't force credit bureau to change anything. I ask for a letter, they say it's not their policy to send letters. Nothing they can do. Back to credit bureau. what do they say .... you guessed it 30 days.
In the meantime, my scores are down and I have a property under contract that I am sure I will have to take a hit in interest rate to qualify for.
Has anyone else experienced this run around from the CRA's. Am I really that helpless or do I have any options open to me?
How come when it comes to getting thigs resolved, these CRA's become so difficult? Isn't there some way to coax them to better behavior?
Thanks in advance for any input.
JS. :-(
Anyone???
I'd really appreciate some insight to this problem or, at the very, least a point in the right direction to find some insight.
Thanks.
JS
dnvrkid,
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the response. I have another question:
If you prove that the item on the report is not yours (I have sent my social security card, last years' W-2 and utility bills showing my actual address for the period when the bill was incurred) isn't the original company required to send you a letter saying that this is not actually your account? I have sent information to the collector, cable company and CRA, all to no avail.
Each and every one of them keeps saying that they can not send me a letter and that they have 30 days to respond. In the meantime, I am losing out on a HUD home that I have under contract. which will expire before those 30 days.
Big Lesson: Check your credit weekly even. I had checked my credit a month befoire this fiasco and all was well. Then one month later: Boom all this stuff is dumped on my report and my scores take a nose dive. Almost impossible to get Non Owner financing with scores in the low 600's.
Oh well, Live and learn I guess.
Have a great Thanksgiving all.
JS
Here is what has always worked for me. 1st send a Validation letter to the companies that are reporting this on your credit. Send certified mail return receipt requested. They have 35 days to respond with proof that the debt is yours. As soon as they receive the letter, immediately send a letter to the CRA's saying the items are not yours. They will then try to verify that the debt is yours with the companies. If the companies don't respond in 30 days, the CRA's have to delete the item. Here is the catch, the companies are not allowed to respond to the CRA's until they have fulfilled your validation request. Hence, they don't respond to the CRA's, and you get the delete.
Do everything through the mail. Is the company responds to the CRA's and verifies, then you have the company in 2 violations which hold a fine of $1000. Then you send a letter to the companies with copies of all of your proof demanding a delete. You will get it.
This has completely restored my credit. I went from the high 500's to the high 700's in 6 months. It’s easy.
There is a credit repair message board about all of this stuff. I can’t post the URL, but someone already has in this forum.
I would call the cable company and ask where you can talk to someone face to face. They surely have a place you can walk in an pay your bill. If no such place exists, ask to talk to a Manager, go above the Supervisors head as time is of the essence.
Tell them that they have until Monday at 3 p.m. to fax you a letter on company letter head stating that the account is not yours. Make sure they include the account number and the dollar amount that is on your credit report.
I would ask them for their legal mailing address and their fax number. On Monday I would file in District court (it will cost you about $50 to file) a lawsuit under the FCRA. If you send me an e-mail I can send you a boiler plate copy to use.
Fax the filed lawsuit and send it certified mail, you may want to do this before you even file to see if that will get a response out of them.
Meanwhile I would study up on the FCRA over the weekend and print out a copy. Marking up each of the areas they are violating, and spell that out in the suit.
You need to force them to act. If you get to the point where you have to file a lawsuit, don't give in at that point.
They are correct they do have 30 days to respond, but they DO NOT have 30 days to correct an error. If they made an error and it has caused you damage then you are eligible for reimbursement of damages and up to a $1,000 penalty.
ONLY take these steps outlined above if you have documentation to assist you. Phone conversation do not work in court.
Good Luck.
My solution is not the fastest, but it will work. It will take 30 days or less usually.
There is a great credit monitoring service from a company names Privacy Guard. They have a 2 month trial for 1 buck. It allows you to do a soft pull every day. After 60 - 120 soft pulls, the hard pulls start to fall off. It will increase your score.
I cancle every 2 months and resign up with a different CC number.
HomeSelling: Have you seen your credit report from an mortgage company or a creditor?
Those hard inquires may fall of your report that only lists a certain amount of inquiries, but I seriously doubt it falls off a report a creditor gets.
They only get hard inquires.
I am just curious as I have never heard of such a thing and wonder if you have proof of what the creditor is actually seeing or just what you are seeing on these personal credit reports which is sometimes very different things!
Thanks.
I certainly understand your skepticism and I can confirm that this is indeed true. The CRA's have a limited amount of space to record inquires. The space is shared between the hard and soft inquires. There is much information about this on the internet. People refer to it as "Bumpege"
Quote:
On 2004-11-24 12:56, dnvrkid wrote:
HomeSelling: Have you seen your credit report from an mortgage company or a creditor?
Those hard inquires may fall of your report that only lists a certain amount of inquiries, but I seriously doubt it falls off a report a creditor gets.
They only get hard inquires.
I am just curious as I have never heard of such a thing and wonder if you have proof of what the creditor is actually seeing or just what you are seeing on these personal credit reports which is sometimes very different things!
Thanks.
Here is a good explination taken from another forum:
for each consumer file. Some CRA’s have much more file space allotted per consumer...while others are still a little behind in the times, lol.
"After research, spreadsheets and much analysis, here’s how it works...
Each CRA allots a certain amount of “file space” in their computer system (aka “lines"
When the certain amount of space has been maxed out or the number of maximum lines has been reached, an interesting thing occurs...old information from certain sections begins to drop off...or disappear from the report. As new information is added to the report, the file space cannot accommodate the addition of data. It is the addition, which in effect, causes something old to drop or BUMP off. Think of it as a stack of 100 blocks...place one on top (referring to new data) and take one off the bottom (referring to the loss of the old data). There are still 100 blocks, The information within the report has changed, but the file space has not increased within the CRA system.
In the case of bumpage, the items that drop off are inquiries. While there are certain patterns that take place, the order in which items drop GENERALLY depends on the specific coding of the type of inquiry (such as credit card, mortgage, insurance, etc). Most times, inquiries drop in a FIFO pattern (First In First Out). Not all inqs will drop, however. Mortgage inqs and insurance inqs seem to be coded in such a way that those inqs will remain for the full 2 years. A/R & PRM Soft inqs generally do not bump either.
After repeated credit pulls, the new “soft inquiries” generated by you pulling your own reports eventually “pushes” the bumpable inqs off your report. As each CRA has different amounts of space, the time required and number of pulls needed definately not only varies with each CRA, but with your individual file size as well. Generally, depending on which CRA, it can take as little as 60 inqs to over 170 inqs. Remember, these are soft inqs that will NOT hurt your score. Note that bumpage will not work for EXP. The file size seems to great to exceed and they have other measures in place to prevent it.
While it does work for EQ and TU...something else new that has come of light since bumpage was discovered is another term called “Choppage”, once again discovered by the Great Pioneer LKH! Of course, I don't think he's as happy about this discovery, lol. Choppage is a preventive measure used by a CRA where they keep track of your file size and number of inqs (both soft and hard) and essentially, CHOP your soft inqs from your report BEFORE you hit the “magic number” for inquiries to obtain bumpage. It can be quite frustrating when this happens...as any day you are anticipating a hard inq to drop, yet when you pull your report that day, ALL of the inqs generated from you pulling your report are GONE. This doesnt always happen, but it happens to enough people to make light of it here in this thread...and it could happen to you!
Now, as we all know, certain benefits cannot come without consequences. Before focusing on pulling your reports as frequently as poossible to attain the “magic number” BE FOREWARNED that there are a couple things that can happen in doing this...so, think twice about the benefits of bumpage vs. the disadvantages.
The most common drawback is that generating a large file with inqs can cause your file to “split”...in essence, creating 2 credit files with 1 CRA. Some data ges transfered to the new file, some stays with your original file...one never knows exactly how the data will split. BUT...what WILL happen, is when a lender pulls your report, you never know WHICH file will be pulled. This, in addition to other issues regarding credit repair (such as disputes resulting in deletion of a baddie, yet, if the baddie shows on both the regular file and the split one, it is often only deleted from one of the files) Generally, split files can be fixed...but it really can be a pain in the kazoo. If asked, many members will be able to give more info on split files.
Another drawback is the loss of other data. Just as “old” inquiries drop off, old accounts can drop off as well. Generally, the only types of accounts that will drop are the ones that are HELPING your score...usually your oldest positive tradelines. Sometimes, they can all disappear at one, or sort of drop one by one until you realize your 15 year old history is now only 4 years long. This can be devastating to a credit score...moreso that the damage a couple of hard inquiries is doing. "
It has been my experience that in the past bumpage did indeed work. However, I believe that the credit bureaus have now caught on to the system and made adjustments.
As for the rapid re-score, yes, your mortgage broker can do that for you. But you can also accomplish the same thing yourself (with Equifax and TransUnion). If you can get that letter from the collection agencies, just call into the bureaus and tell them you are going for a mortgage and need to get something that you have proof for removed ASAP. They will give you their current fax number (they change them all the time) and you can fax it in asking for "URGENT MORTGAGE RELATED INVESTIGATIONS THAT NEED IMMEDIATE ATTENTION" or something similar. Best of luck.
Mario Costanz
Bumpage has the potential drawback that TU at least (IIRC) will furnish to some potential creditors a "counter" of how many times your credit has been accessed (hards, softs, and perhaps even "consumer" inquiries). Some underwriters have been known to factor this counter into their internal scoring systems and deny a mortgage based on a large number of inquiries. For their part, the CRA immediatly removes or zeroes the counter if a consumer complains, which tells me the CRAs know they shouldn't be providing it.
I'll attach a link on this later if I can find it.
I found the link:
http://www.artofcredit.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3194
The one I was refering to is Credit Boards.
Quote:
On 2004-11-27 12:31, flacorps wrote:
I found the link:
http://www.artofcredit.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3194