I sold my house at a huge profit and paid off some serious debt to eight different credit cards. For the longest time I had nightmares about the money I owed to credit cards, so as you would expect I was so happy to be debt free after sending in payment in full to eight different credit cards.
Though I did not feel debt free until my three credit reports showed a $0 Balance. I was told that would take some time. I got restless and decided to stick my neck out and call the customer service number of all eight of the credit cards I paid off to $0 and see if they could do a rush report to the three credit reporting agencies.
My first call was to the nice folks at CitiBank for my ATT Universal Card. I was so happy to hear someone with a mIdwestern accent on the line. I thought I can work with this woman. She told me she was in South Dakota. I told her my situation and she looked into it and said, YES, it can be done. They could do a special request to the three credit reporting agencies in two business days. She said normally it would be done at the statement closing date which was three weeks away. I told her I could not wait because I needed great credit to rent an nice apartment. I checked three days later and the ATT Universal CC Account showed a $0 balance in all three credit reports. SUCCESS!!
My next call was to American Express. I had always thought that they were the best credit card company out there. My closing date for American Express would not happen until January 20th and I had paid them a very large amount of money to bring the account to a $0 balance. The lady on the phone from American Express was friendly but told me this could not be done. I would have to wait until 1/20/2013 for my account payoff to be reported to the three credit bureaus. I told her I was surprised that CitiCorp could help me but not American Express. She said sorry about ten times but could not help me.
I then called the other six credit cards I had paid off and mostly talked to people in India who said sorry a lot but no, no, no. They could not request a special update to the three credit bureaus and I would have to wait till various dates in late January to get my credit updated at the end of the billing cycle. I begged and complained but got no where.
I have already been turned down at two apartments because I owe too much money on my credit cards. I tell them the credit reports they are looking at is out of date but they just smile and look embarrassed.
What do you think of my story?
