General Credit Topics

[scubasteve]

OK...I'm in the military and have moved a lot in past few years.  Because of this, I pay all of my bills online and receive statements from my bank that the payments are submitted.  I get little to no correspondence from my creditors about my accounts with them and have paid every one on a timely basis.  All of my accounts were up to date, so I thought. 

I recently found out that my car loan through Chase has been 60 days late for 13 months.  I never received notice about this from them or my bank.  They said they sent my account to collections, but no one has called me or even sent me anything in the mail.  I thought this was odd.  I called the collections department and the lady told me to bring my account up to date, so I made an extra payment and all should be fine she says.  I then ask her if they can remove the 13 months of late payments and the lady laughs and says they can probably do one.

I am really frustrated because we were planning on buying a house in a couple of months and now I'm sure my credit report is worthless.  I found out about this because my wife was calling Chase while I was gone for a while to find out about the payoff.

I want to pay off the loan, but I won't until they remove the 60 day notices from my report. All of my other accounts are fine with no late payments whatsoever.  I even found out that another creditor that I had a zero balance with cancelled my credit with them becuase of the adverse reporting on my credit report.

Anyone have any suggestions?   I have letters prepared for the 3 agencies to be mailed first thing Monday.

Thanks,

Steve

[okrogius]

May be worthwhile to try disputing it with CRA's as inaccurate, as in a way this can be intererpeted as just one 180+ late a year ago instead.

[scubasteve]

Here is what I prepared for the 3 agencies:

I have discovered inaccurate information on my credit report maintained by Chase Bank. The report is in my name, X, Social Security Number xxx-xx-xxxx.

The creditor, X bank, has been reporting 60 day late payments to your company.  For the period of time this has been occurring, X bank has failed to notify me of any late payments either through postal mail, electronic mail, or telephonically.  I have recently spoken with their collections department and they have incorrect information on me that I have furnished them in the past.  My account with X has been paid electronically for the past 2 years; therefore I receive no correspondence from them.  It was recently discovered that my account is being held past due because of a billing error.  My bank, X, issues me a monthly statement that my payment to X bank has been submitted.  This would lead me to believe that my account would be current with X bank. 

Additionally, this credit reporting is adversely reflected on my credit score and I have already been subject to adverse review of my credit score. 

Please investigate this matter with the creditor in question and you should find there is an error. When that is confirmed, please remove this error from my credit report.

In addition, please make this letter a permanent part of my credit record.

If you have any questions about my request or the credit information in question, please do not hesitate to call me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.

Thank you for your prompt attention to my request.

[okrogius]

Don't do the investigation work for them. This may sound harsh, but your agreement with the creditor is that you pay the bill, there is nothing in it about how you're notified of the bill. Thus, while this may be unfair, your particular letter only verifies lateness as accurate. A CRA doesn't care why you're late.

[yoreljm]

This sounds weird. Were the payments all deducted from your bank account each month? Was it that chase was not getting the payments even though you sent them?

[Noah_Bodie]

Recheck your records to ensure it truly was late. It's possible they failed to credit payment received ontime to your account. Cashing the check and crediting that payment on your account are two different things. They might have done one but not the other.