New Charge off date!

[Anonymous]

So I call today and speak to the guy at GMAC who tells me that he's forwarded the issue to his supervisor and that he has no idea where the amount came from because the amount was never even owed on my account and he realizes the charge off date was wrong but that he doesn't know if anything they can do will fix it.   I ask when his supervisor will submit it and he says probably today but it won't post till July since they only report once a month.... HUH????   I ask to speak to the supervisor and so far I'm playing phone tag with him.   He did call back but I was on the other line with my boss.   

Just to confirm though, these guys do have the power to call the CRA's immediately right?   If he refuses to do that what kind of things can I use to persuade him?   Should I envoke the "my rights under the FCRA"  speech or do they have a certain amount of time to fix an error like that if they make one?

After years of being harassed by creditors, it's a bit nice to be on the otherside of things and actually have some control over the call and what needs to be done.  It takes a while to shake off the intimidation factor but I believe I'm getting there. 

[MercyMe]

Good morning, Princess!  Yes, they do have the power/ability to do that.  All OCs have access numbers to the CRAS  they report to/have accounts with, for the purpose of reporting/updating, etc.  Some collection dept. reps might deny this, as some may not be aware of it,  but if they do, insist upon speaking to a supervisor.  Looks as though you have made your way up the ranks, well enough, though, huh?  I'm rootin' for ya! 

[Anonymous]

I disputed the reapplied charge off through the CRA , and it came off very quickly (week or two).

[MercyMe]

Hi, Rocket.  I read your post, yesterday, but was unable to respond.  Sorry about that.  To clarify what can sometimes happen when you dispute incorrect information regarding charge offs, I would have to copy/paste the past 26 months of the CRAS reports on Sun Trust Bank.  There are many, many, as the one I posted the other day showing a charge off date as 04/2007, though this account closed 2/2003, went into charge off on 12/2002, and was paid in full, after charge off, as of 9/2004. 

In an 18 month period, between 12/04, and following a dispute regarding the status on the account reading Bad Debt/Collection, and the present, this account has reported newly charged off 3 times.  In one 81 month payment history, the payment history has shown 3 separate, new/recent, charge offs that occurred on and AFTER 12/04, though the account, again,  charged off 12/2002 and was paid in full 9/2004.  Because the status on the account has continued (and still does) to read Bad Debt/Collection, rather than PAID charge off, every time I  have disputed incorrect information. the charge off date would update to that current month, as it did again, in April 2004, and again wreaked havoc with my credit score -- this past time it dropped 40 points... This has been recurring, and no dispute with any of the three CRAS resolved this matter (and is yet to be resolved with Experian) . 

After many unsuccessful attempts to dispute this with the CRAS, I was told to contact the bank/OC as they were the ones responsible for reporting the information.  The CRAS simply report what is reported to them.  I have made progress in fighting the OC in that corrections were made to the EQ and TU reports but only to the extent that the 81 month histories have been deleted.  The Bad Debt/Collection still remains and this makes the account  subject to updates with newly reported current/recent lates and charge offs. 

The CRAS and the OC argue that regardless of what the status reads the comments on the account indicate that the account is closed and paid.  Until the STATUS on the account reads the same, per an Experian Rep just yesterday, any attempt to update/dispute with the CRAS will return the same  misinformation that is  generated electronically, from the OC.  The OC needs to MANUALLY change the information in their data base, in order for the account to read correctly.  Thus far, I've had no luck in getting them to do that, though twice they assured me that they had done so, as well as I was assured they  blocked the account so that it would no longer update, but lo and behold, it well did and my credit took a nose dive, yet again.

Remember people  STATUS does matter!  If you have paid off a charge off, your status should not read Bad Debt/Collection/Charge off.  It should read PAID CHARGE OFF.    So long as the status doesn't read paid,  your account is, for all intents and purposes still OPEN and it doesn't amount to a hill of beans that the account reads as closed and paid in the COMMENTS.  In transferring info, electronically, the "system" does not read the comments!  It reads CODES, AND THAT STATUS CODE IS WHAT DETERMINES THE STATE OF YOUR ACCOUNT. 

Perhaps you would like to weigh in, Tuscani, on this?  I would sure appreciate it, as though for this month my EQ and TU Ficos are quite high, now that the history has been deleted from this account, I am yet in the middle of the battle as the status is unchanged and Experian refuses to budge until it gets the go ahead from the OC, which the OC has yet to do.  EX Fico:  623.  TU Fico 689  EQ Fico:  662.  That's a BIG difference!  My score has dropped to the high 500s simply because of the way this account is reporting. 

Thanks, Rocket, I appreciate your comment, and would suggest you watch your own account, closely.

me

[Anonymous]

A shame you have gone through all of that.  So far everything is stable, and they haven't done anything funky. 

[Anonymous]

I went home of lunch, and found a letter from TU regarding my dispute of the Cap Ones charge off.  They claimed they checked with the lender and verified reporting was correct.  In the letter they showed that I had a balance and past due amount owed.  I thought mercyme was just talking about the screwy things that are being done with Charge Offs.  So, I came back to work and pulled all three reports, and thankfully, they all still show balance owed $0, with no past due, and no reapplied CO.

But, how in the world can they process a dispute and validate a bogus entry, while at the same time its been corrected through another channel (in this case I contacted Cap One directly, and they fixed the problem).

To recap -

I did two things at the same time -

1) Disputed the charge off through the CRA process -  Came back validating the bogus data saying its reporting correctly

2) Contacted Cap One telling them the same problem - They fixed the data reporting problem to CRA.

Its happened a couple of other times where I've disputed something, it was validated, and later I was able to get it corrected.

[Anonymous]

So now what do I do with Experian?  I called GMAC and spoke to a supervisor there.  According to what he sees on his report it looks correct, but he did see what I was viewing so he called EX.  They told him that according to their records they are reporting correctly as well and verified the information with GMAC.  They said the charge off date is still the original 2/03 and there is a zero balance showing and No amount showing as settled.   Even on the report I pulled this morning I show a written off amount of 1091.00 and a charge off as of 6/07.  I have already disputed this with EX and they verified.  I tried to call EX using the numbers I saw posted here.   The only number I could get that actually still seemed valid I to leave a message and of course the guy hasn't called me back.   Where do I go from here?   I would really like my auto loan through my credit union, but until this is cleared up I don't want to apply and take the hit unnecessarily.

[Anonymous]

Would the credit union give you the loan if you had something from GMAC that indicates its an old charge off that you have paid off?

[MercyMe]

Princess, the next time you speak to Experian (if he calls you back, or CMRRR this to them) remind them of their own definition of STATUS, and you might want to inform the supervisor of GMAC of the same. 

http://www.experian.com/disputes/basics/faq.html

Why does a collection account still appear on my report? I paid it.

When your creditor turns over a seriously past due account to a collection company, your credit report will show the status of the account as "collection." If you pay the account, the status will be "paid collection."
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I cut and pasted this from their website Q and A.  The same applies to charge off accounts!  If it is a paid charge off or collection the status is NOT bad debt/collection/charge off, it is, in their own words PAID CHARGE OFF.  I clarified this, just today, with a representative from Equifax as well as a rep from the office of the PRESIDENT of Sun Trust, when Sun Trust again updated with the CRAS and again shows my status as charge off for 6/07!

I've more to say, but I'm trying to find some info on the "codes", as this is all important as to how information in a report is  transferred from the OC to the CRAS and then recorded.  I can tell you this, the Rep from the President's office at the bank today said that once an account has charged off, THE ACCOUNT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO UPDATE beyond the charge off date,  which can remain for up to 7 years.  But they do.  Many, many, many of them do, and that being the case, some sort of action must be taken!  Regardless, the status needs to be recoded,  changing the codes from charge off/bad debt, etc, to paid, and that seems to be where the failure lies, in updating the status codes.  I'll get back to you with more on this, soon as I can.

mercy 

[Anonymous]

Mercy, I just adore you.