At a loss on what to do..

[LALALISA]

Yesterday, I pulled my USAA credit monitoring reports and noticed that a Dell Financial charge off balance was updated from $0 to $1,131 on my Experian.  On Eq, Dell shows a balance of $983 and closed. On TU, Dell says it's discharged in my Chap 7 BK in 2006 which it was NOT included in the BK and it has a zero balance (which is to my advantage even though it's incorrect). So basically, all three CRA's is reporting different things. This baddie is due to drop off in mid 2013 and it is my biggest baddie of them all.

My questions:

1.  Should I leave this "sleeping giant" alone and let it drop off?

2.  If not, how to proceed?

3.  Did this just drop my Ex FICO score because of the balance increase?

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be wonderful.  Thanks in advance.

[RobertEG]

Obviously, its the same account, so the reporting should be consistent with each CRA.  So, clearly, their is a disputable inaccuracy.

However, should you dispute?  In my opinion, it would depend upon your credit needs between now and when it will expire of its own old age.

A dispute will compel them to correct the inaccuracies, but it wont compel deletion.  If you app for new credit with the inconsistencies in your CR, particularly the reporting by one CRA that the debt is discharged, and they do a manual review, it would most likely lead to confusion.  Particularly in a mortgage app process, where debt status is a factor.

If you choose to pursue it, I would send one direct dispute to the creditor, who will have to correct the inconsistencies will all CRAs to which they have reported.

I would not generate three separate disputes with each of the CRAs, and thus produce a dispute flag in each of your credit files.

[LALALISA]

Thanks Robert. We don't plan on buying a house until next year, after this falls off.  Not because of this account but it's just our timeline for saving.  So i'm not worried about getting new credit at the moment.  This is the account I planned on ignoring anyway (Sad, but true).

Did the update decrease my Ex score? This makes it hard since we have no access to it.  

[RobertEG]

Just keep in mind that "ignoring" it and relying on CR exclusion wont make it go away.

It still remains as unpaid, bad debt, and could be considered by a future creditor if they are made aware of it from another source, such as simply asking if you have any unpaid, delinquent debt. 

[LALALISA]

Since this OP, I have settled this CO.  It really feels great to do it.  Unfortunately, they won't delete.  I will GW them once they update my CR's to settled.