General Credit Topics

[coachhenson]

My wife and I are working on cleaning up our credit, and an account she had as a charge-off recently was listed on my credit.  I disputed it with TU, deleted the next day.

[focused07]

So when you disputed, did you go the route as Tuscani advised of stating "this is not my account", or did you state "this is my wife's account and I am only an AU, please remove"?  I am in the same boat (I am an AU on my husband's card and there is one 30 day late payment that is reporting to my CR) and was about to write a GW letter but wonder if I would get faster, better results by disputing. There is otherwise a perfect payment history on this card. The account is about 5-6 yrs old but I have others and it's currently reporting as "closed by the consumer" - so not sure it's doing anything but hurting my score right now anyway.

[focused07]

bump.

[so_confused]

Sounds like you could do the GW from him, then if its not removed, and you have older TL's, and its not going to really effect your UTIL % you could dispute it as, not mine.

[focused07]

thanks so confused!

[Noah_Bodie]

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focused07 wrote:

I am in the same boat (I am an AU on my husband's card and there is one 30 day late payment that is reporting to my CR) and was about to write a GW letter but wonder if I would get faster, better results by disputing. There is otherwise a perfect payment history on this card. The account is about 5-6 yrs old but I have others and it's currently reporting as "closed by the consumer" - so not sure it's doing anything but hurting my score right now anyway.

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Lates hurt until they drop. The amount of hurt fades with time.

Have your husband pursue GW. If your husband can get GW, it's almost assured they will delete the TL altogether rather than delete only the late.

You can hold out and see whether your husband can get them to delete only the late, but as I say it's not likely. But I would go ahead and dispute it off your CRs since you're an AU.

[focused07]

Noah - I am a bit confused.  So are you recommending that I should have my husband send a GW letter to them?  Or should I dispute the tradeline as not mine?  I have prepared the GW letter and I am ready to send.  Can I do both simultaneously (the GW and the dispute as not mine)?  If I go the "not mine" route, do I indicate anywhere in the letter that I am an AU on the account?

Help???

[Noah_Bodie]

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focused07 wrote:

So are you recommending that I should have my husband send a GW letter to them?  Or should I dispute the tradeline as not mine?  I have prepared the GW letter and I am ready to send.  Can I do both simultaneously (the GW and the dispute as not mine)?  If I go the "not mine" route, do I indicate anywhere in the letter that I am an AU on the account?

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Both.

Your husband should pursue GW, and that may or may not come to pass.

But you can dispute this away without any problem since it's an AU account for you. Either online or in a letter. You can tell 'em either not mine or you're only an AU.

The only way an adverse AU account of a spouse can be reported on the AU spouse's CR is if the married couple resides in a community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin) and the account was acquired "within the marital community." However, even if you're in a community property state, I would still dispute it as not mine or AU account. Not every OC is aware of community property statutes. They might just see AU and think, "uh-oh, don't wanna be another $100K Johnson v. MBNA."

[focused07]

Thanks Noah - got it now.  We were not married at the time that he added me as an AU (about 4.5 years ago), but we are now (just 1 yr.).  And we do live in CA, so I am going to have him sign the GW letter I drafted and also send a dispute letter and online.  One more question since I have not disputed much:  do I file the dispute online directly with the bureau are with the creditor?

[Noah_Bodie]

Dispute with the CRA to get the TL deleted off your CRs.