Judgements
Hello everyone,
I had a judgement against me. I paid it off and just received the recorded satisfaction. The judgement holder said they would not be contacting the credit bureau's to let them know that this had been satisfied. That it was up to me. Now that I have received my satisfaction, what should be my next step in getting it updated with the credit bureau's and having my credit score revaluated.
All advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Wendi
Hi Wendi,
Your next step would be to contact all three credit bureaus and informed them that the debt/judgment has been satisfied and you would like them to add this to your bureau.
I'm sure you will have to provide them with the appropiate documents to support that your debt has been satisfied.
It is imperative that you contact all three bureaus. Contacting only one will not ensure the other two will be informed by the others.
You can go on the web and look up their phone#'s.
I hope this helps.
Just be aware that if you do this and later decide to dispute the judgements on your reports in order to get them removed, your chances of success just dropped down to 0 because you've sent proof of their validity.
Why would she not contact the bureau to inform them the judgment has been settled. The debt has been paid and the bureau will not know this. Therefore, if she tries to etablish credit the judgment will still be on the report showing "unsatisfied".
Its too late for her to even consider this debt as being erroneous..."the debt was paid".
The only way she could have disputed it is if she had applied for credit and got turned down, she turns around and ask for her report and saw the judgment there and if the "amount owed" was incorrect, then she could have disputed. Which at that point the bureau would have done an investigation with the creditor and the creditor has either 30-45 days to respond to the dispute. If they fail to respond, then the bureaus will have no choice but to "remove" the debt.
I know all about this....I'm speaking from experience.
I had a judgment of over $6000.00 on my report which was totally incorrect. I followed the procedure the bureau forwarded to me and whala the judgment was "removed". I turned around and notified the other two bureaus and they did the same.
It took six years of aggravation of being turned down credit because of the incorrect information on my bureau. And after extensive research and found out I can do this all by myself is when I took "action".
----------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
On 2004-05-27 17:20, thestudentisready wrote:
Just be aware that if you do this and later decide to dispute the judgements on your reports in order to get them removed, your chances of success just dropped down to 0 because you've sent proof of their validity.
[ Edited by millionaireinthemaking on Date 05/27/2004 ][ Edited by millionaireinthemaking on Date 05/27/2004 ]
Once the judgement was removed, did your credit score change? I don't think they will remove it for seven years. But, they will show that it was paid. I am hoping that by paying this judgement and getting it in good standing my credit score will increase. I want so bad to become an investor and have been having a hard time due to poor credit score and limited money.
Wendi,
In my case suprisingly it was completely removed from all three bureaus.
With your situation, more than likely it will remain on your bureau for seven years; but it will show that it has been "satisfied". You can also include and request the bureaus to add how you got into a financial crunch. They will include this on your file.
You will have to talk with the bureau about "rescoring".
Yes, my credit was improved once the incorrect information was removed. My bureau showed I no longer had a "judgment" against me.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
On 2004-05-27 18:02, wendi6 wrote:
Once the judgement was removed, did your credit score change? I don't think they will remove it for seven years. But, they will show that it was paid. I am hoping that by paying this judgement and getting it in good standing my credit score will increase. I want so bad to become an investor and have been having a hard time due to poor credit score and limited money.
[ Edited by millionaireinthemaking on Date 05/27/2004 ]
Quote:
Why would she not contact the bureau to inform them the judgment has been settled. The debt has been paid and the bureau will not know this. Therefore, if she tries to etablish credit the judgment will still be on the report showing "unsatisfied".
Yes, obviously having this corrected is preferable to it showing as an open judgement.
Quote:Its too late for her to even consider this debt as being erroneous..."the debt was paid".
If you say so. People get paid debt eliminated from their reports all the time.
Quote:The only way she could have disputed it is if she had applied for credit and got turned down, she turns around and ask for her report and saw the judgment there and if the "amount owed" was incorrect, then she could have disputed.
This is just not true. She can dispute at any time. Show me the statute that limits her disputes to these very limited circumstances. It doesn't exist. She doesn't have to be denied for anything. It's irrelevent.
Quote: Which at that point the bureau would have done an investigation with the creditor and the creditor has either 30-45 days to respond to the dispute. If they fail to respond, then the bureaus will have no choice but to "remove" the debt.
That's the theory anyway. In reality, they're likely to ignore the dispute regardless of your reason for disputing. You're assuming that the bureaus will actually bother to verify the info as per the request. They might, but they might not. If they don't, but pretend they did, there's one course of action and it's going to take some time. A smarter set of moves in this circumstance would get the listing REMOVED vs. corrected.
If the bureaus actually did attempt to verify, and the furnisher didn't respond, then they SHOULD remove the listing. Again, they might... they might not. If they don't, there are steps to be taken that will force them to remove.
Guess what though... if she sends the info showing the debt is paid off, she just self-verified the debt. None of the above applies, and she has no choice but to wait out the years for the judgement to drop.
It depends on the desired outcome. If she's in a short-term crunch where she needs financing, and the judgement needs to be satisfied to get the funding, then sending the info should get that fixed.
If, however, she has some more time she may have preferable options which keep open the possibility of getting the judgements removed from her reports.
I can understand where you are coming from.
And yes you are correct, she can dispute anything on her bureau at any given moment.
I suppose the moral of the story is that we as consumer have the right to dispute any erroneous information on our bureau, and that we can do this ourselves and not pay someone outrageous fees.
I figured since the debt has been paid then she can request the bureau to show this...
Me personally, I would not dispute any debts I've incurred just because I have the rights to do so...My luck they'll find out I was deceptive; then what...Then they will probably red flag me. But, I will dispute any debt that is incorrect even if it is "one dollar" off...Now this, I have a right to do and if successful it can be removed.
I'm just glad to hear she was able to pay off the judgment...Now hopefully she can move on with her life
---------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
On 2004-05-27 18:39, thestudentisready wrote:
Quote:
Why would she not contact the bureau to inform them the judgment has been settled. The debt has been paid and the bureau will not know this. Therefore, if she tries to etablish credit the judgment will still be on the report showing "unsatisfied".
Yes, obviously having this corrected is preferable to it showing as an open judgement.
Quote:Its too late for her to even consider this debt as being erroneous..."the debt was paid".
If you say so. People get paid debt eliminated from their reports all the time.
Quote:The only way she could have disputed it is if she had applied for credit and got turned down, she turns around and ask for her report and saw the judgment there and if the "amount owed" was incorrect, then she could have disputed.
This is just not true. She can dispute at any time. Show me the statute that limits her disputes to these very limited circumstances. It doesn't exist. She doesn't have to be denied for anything. It's irrelevent.
Quote: Which at that point the bureau would have done an investigation with the creditor and the creditor has either 30-45 days to respond to the dispute. If they fail to respond, then the bureaus will have no choice but to "remove" the debt.
That's the theory anyway. In reality, they're likely to ignore the dispute regardless of your reason for disputing. You're assuming that the bureaus will actually bother to verify the info as per the request. They might, but they might not. If they don't, but pretend they did, there's one course of action and it's going to take some time. A smarter set of moves in this circumstance would get the listing REMOVED vs. corrected.
If the bureaus actually did attempt to verify, and the furnisher didn't respond, then they SHOULD remove the listing. Again, they might... they might not. If they don't, there are steps to be taken that will force them to remove.
Guess what though... if she sends the info showing the debt is paid off, she just self-verified the debt. None of the above applies, and she has no choice but to wait out the years for the judgement to drop.
It depends on the desired outcome. If she's in a short-term crunch where she needs financing, and the judgement needs to be satisfied to get the funding, then sending the info should get that fixed.
If, however, she has some more time she may have preferable options which keep open the possibility of getting the judgements removed from her reports.
My point is just that she can accomplish the same thing by disputing without sending the doc's... unless she has a lender lined up and is chomping at the bit to get this notated immediately. In theory, they'll do the same thing regardless... attempt to verify with the furnisher... except by not personally providing the docs, she hasn't hung herself for anything she decides to do in the future if she gets educated about her rights.
Taking action because you're in a bind and need quick results is one thing, but let's not hand over all of our power. Remember, it's not her job to provide them with proof. It's their job to provide complete and accurate information. For them to do anything else is against the law.
I have a friend who has had his bk wiped off all 3 within 15 months of discharge and ALL related accounts as well. He was asked several times to send proof of various aspects so inaccuracies could be corrected. Guess how many times he complied.
Thats pretty interesting with what your friend did with his "BK" on the bureau..
Just the same, thanks for the insights
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I have a friend who has had his bk wiped off all 3 within 15 months of discharge and ALL related accounts as well. He was asked several times to send proof of various aspects so inaccuracies could be corrected. Guess how many times he complied.
There is no "red flag" for a chronic improperly disputing consumer. The only possible "penalty" is that the "date reported" becomes rolled forward to the current date, which can temporarily put your FICO score in the tank until the item ages (or "seasons"
again. For some bad tradelines, this is irrelevan, as the creditor reports them monthly or quarterly anyway, even though they may have been paid off or sold off years ago.
In short, the aggressive approach has much to recommend it, and little reason to avoid it. It's sort of like Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" quote...
Even if there were a "red flag", I'd think it would be a good thing. Put yourself in the CRA's shoes. You have disputes from two people. One is Joe Blow Consumer who statistically will roll over and play dead if you BS the verification or send a blow-off form letter refusing to even investigate.
The other is a well-documented pain in your $%& who obviously knows their rights and who is clearly tracking enough of your violations for a lawyer to take the case. Squeaky wheel. They can "red flag" me all they want. Heck... make me public enemy #1.
I hope they rig the phone lines to put my calls right through to a special red phone on the president's desk. It'll help me cut through all the red tape and get things done quickly and correctly. Let everybody else get the form letters because they're busy actually responding to my disputes. "Red flag?" Where do I sign-up?
I am in a similar situation. I was looking at my credit report a couple of days ago and noticed that a judgement against me was down as unpaid.
I called the attorney for the company and they sent me the satisfaction notice which they said was filed.
My problem is the judgement is from 3/98, 3/05 the judgement should fall off. Do I go ahead and dispute the unpaid status or just wait for the judgement to drop off in 3/05? :-?
Quote:I called the attorney for the company and they sent me the satisfaction notice which they said was filed.It might be in the court case file, but is it recorded with the county clerk/recorder's office? You may need to take that extra step, at your own expense, so that www.banko.com (formerly Dolan) will pick it up and it will then appear eventually on the 3 major CRA's databases as "satisfied". But don't send it to the CRAs without understanding what can happen (like it potentially being cemented onto your reports and indisputable).