Radio Shack credit card has dropped off all 3 of my reports

[wilee]

Is there anything I can do to get my Radio Shack card back on my credit report? It's my oldest account (opened in '95) and I'd really like to get my history back. I called citibank and they say they are still reporting it. Looking back at my old EQ reports, it looks like the last time I actually carried a balance and paid interest was in 12/98. I'm guessing the account dropped off in 12/08. I've used the card since then, but always PIF when I get the statement.

I just put $35 on it 3 weeks ago and will make the $10 minimum payment over the next 3 months. Is there anything else I can do?

[haulingthescoreup]

Since the account is still open, it should be reported to the CRA's and they should be displaying it.

When was your most recent statement? You might have to pull this up online, as your usage has been erratic. Citi probably updated when your last statement dropped. If it's been several weeks or more, try disputing online with the CRA's to force them to report.

[wilee]

The last statement with a balance was on 11/26/08. I pif on 12/05/08. Before that, I used the card in 12/07 and I PIF when I got the statement. The current statement is for 1/26/09 and I only paid the $10 minimum payment.

I can actually dispute an account the CRA seems to think doesn't exist?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hmm, OK, I might have over-reached myself there, lol.

But I could swear that there is an "other" box or something similar where you could get this in.

Help! Anyone out there who has recently messed around with the dispute options who can answer this??

[wilee]

Equifax says contact Radio Shack. Citibank says "we report every month."

[haulingthescoreup]

Can you find out from Citibank exactly what they're reporting? One possibility is that they messed up your SSN or something and that it's going on someone else's report. This is less likely if it used to be there and now it's not, but we've all known things to suddenly get messed up for no detectable reason.

This is a stretch: have you had any other accounts go missing, or sometimes they're there and sometimes they're not? Has your EQ score fluctuated up and down by the same amount several times? It could be that your EQ file is now so big that it has split (this is a known problem with EQ), and most of your data is in one file, and the rest is in another file.

That's not likely, but it's always possible, especially if you have frequently pulled your credit reports. The soft inqs take up a lot of available data storage space, and the file gets unwieldy and breaks. (This is my uber-techie explanation.) They're also bad about losing closed accounts way before 10 for the same reason, but as this account is open, that shouldn't apply.

[wilee]

It just showed up on my Experian report yesterday...with my current balance, not the statement balance. My statement closes around the 28th every month and it looks like they are reporting around the 15th. I guess this explains why it didn't show any activity; I have paid in full just a few days after the closing date whenever I used the card. It probably has been a zero balance for over 10 years on the 15th.

Hopefully it will update and be back on my TU and EQ reports soon.

[wilee]

It showed up on TU today...looks like it's gonna be back to reporting correctly.

Message Edited by wilee on 02-21-2009 08:20 PM