I've been reading these boards for about a week - lots of helpful info. Here's my situation:
1 Chase Visa - recently paid in full. (yay!)
1. Target RedCard - one 30 day late (I'm optimistic I can get this removed with a GW letter if it isnt. CreditKarma shows it's been removed but my reports show it as a negative still. Might take longer.)
The real sticking negative is an account from Verizon Wireless. That I didn't open.
Rewinding to March of this year, I got a collection letter for around $1,150 from "Miracle Financial" - one of the least pleasant and most aggressive collections agencies around. Not recognizing the account, and not using Verizon services, I called Miracle. They proceeded to yell at, swear, and eventually hang up on me when I asked to speak to a supervisor.
Literally the same week as this happened, I'd lost my job and was also dealing with some stalking and defamation issues. This put me in a position of having to relocate and only giving a forwarding address to the handful of people I could trust. Obviously, Miracle Financial/Verizon was not on that list. So, I set the issue aside.
This is on my reports as - Equifax - over 120 days late since August 2010 - but the last month for some reason is showing "OK" - and status of Open - Experian dates it 6/2011 and Unpaid - Transunion shows no payment breakdown but also unpaid - all of these showing an amount of $945.
Now on the reports, it's listing as Verizon in Folsom, CA (internal collections) and Verizon Great Lakes. It's not mentioning Miracle Financial.
The kicker is, this isn't my account. I never signed for anything. I know who it is - I'm almost certain, but of course they're not going to speak to me nor do I want them to. Interestingly, when I did a free pull of one of my reports their address (in a state I never lived in) showed up but I inadvertently disputed that address and now I believe its gone. So I'm not sure if I can use that info to my advantage.
So I don't know where to start. I'm not sure if Miracle is actually handling this account now and considering their treatment of me, I'm not especially keen to let them know my new address. It's not my account and I never saw bills for it - but who is the best person to start with to get this taken care of?
I have an equally puzzling situation with GEMB/Paypal. Again, account opened, showing as late, I never saw a card, a bill, etc. This is a little more confusing as I do have a Paypal account but never used a credit to rack up the charges they're showing or had one of their Mastercards sent to me.
Even more inconvenient is my reports are not showing the FULL version of the account numbers so I can't use those when contacting them regarding the accounts.
This is extremely frustrating but after reading some of the stories here, I have to hold out hope it can be done. I've been through a lot in the past few months and would like nothing more than to build on the success of getting my Visa paid down to take care of these two negative accounts and have solid credit!
Also, I know CreditKarma is a FAKO score but why would they be so quick on the Target deletion when none of the other reports reflect it? What source do they have that isn't factoring in to other sites?
Really appreciate you all who take the time to post here, and anyone who has feedback for me.
