This is my first time posting as I just opened this account so as to share my story to help (any of you).
So long story short, I visited GAP in September 2016 and it was my fault that I did not ask thoroughly. At the cashier, I thought they were applying me a store card or membership card. My family was in town with me so I did not ask much or pay attention to those stuffs.
8 months later (May 2017), I was applying for mortgage and my credit report was pulled and I was told that I had a unpaid GAP credit card with $27 balance (charge off). I was confused because I did not receive any information from the bank (nor mail or email). I finally realized I did something that would bring me nightmares. Immediately after discussing the issue with the bank (the one I applied mortgage), they referred me to a credit consulting company that charged me $150 for two months but did not do anything (I cancelled it about a month later).
Right after I got to know that charge-off record, I called Synchrony bank to figure out what was happening. Honestly, I have been in called with at least 50 people from that bank and nobody can speak clear English. You must have good hearing to talk to those people. In addition, they are not friendly/polite! I remember the first call I had with a lady was the most disrespectful call I have ever had. Since I did not know about the card and any information, I provided my name and SSN. However, that lady was not able to locate my information based on the fact that she thought I was lying because the name I provided does not match the name on their profile. She even told me this "call back when you remember your name". I was like "**bleep** I know my name I don't have to remember my name. She ended up transferring me to another guy and that guy was able to help me locate my information and I agreed to pay that $27 for settlement.
About 2 weeks later, I got a letter from them saying charge-off is changed to paid-in-full. So I called them again to try to get that record out of my credit report. I mean, their customer service is a joke. During each call, I was usually transferred couple times. During each time, I had to explain my story again and again. They don't communicate with each other during the transfer (good luck with being a good story teller). No matter how many people I talked to, they refused to take it off.
Another nightmare I had to deal with was to communicate with credit bureaus (Equifax and Experian).
First, the negative GAP record was only shown on Equifax. Transunion and Experian did not have it. I tried to obtain a credit report from Equifax but I was not able to because they did not even have my information. I called and faxed thousands of times again (of course their customer service sucks again) and finally I got my online credit report from Equifax. Interestingly, it does not show the negative record (maybe it is because they updated my correct SSN and name).
Yeah it is not time to celebrate yet. Some people here may know Equifax credit report comes with records from Transunion and Experian. This time Transunion is still good but Experian shows the negative record. I was not surprised anymore because I got used to it.
So I started it over again for trying to get a credit report from Experian. Only good thing about Experian is their customer service is way better than Synchrony bank's and Equifax's. Usual wait time is 20-30s comparing to Equifax's (Synchrony bank's) 20-30 mins and representatives are located in the U.S. and they speak normal English. Unfortunately, I was not able to have online access. I called and they told me (once again) they cannot verify my information. All they can do is to mail me a copy of the credit report and follow the steps on that. I got the report within a week and yes the negative record is there. I called and disputed the item but you know what I got a letter in about 3 weeks saying they can't process the dispute because they cannot verify my identity (I mailed them copies of my ID and W2). Even till now I can't have online access because they locked my SSN in their profile. A representative told me not to try logging in for 30-60 days in order to unlock it. So, it is a joke that they can't do anything once your SSN is locked.
I was exhausted after all these. Nobody can help and nothing I could do.
Fortunately, I came across some posts here about goodwill letter. I knew that this could be my last chance. I wrote a letter asking them to take it off in a polite tone and mailed to copies to TX and FL. I also emailed ask.sychrony twice and their CEO on LinkedIn. Letters were sent out on 7/7/17 and I got a call from 605-355-5500 but I was not able to pick it up. A lady called Victoria (she sounded nice) left a message saying she is with corporate customer relation of Synchrony bank with GAP and asked me to call back. Strangely, I called her about 5 times a day for 14 days but she didn't pick up. There was nothing I could do but to send an email to ask.sychrony again on 7/20.
A guy called me the next day on 7/21 (605-355-5500) and of course I picked it up even when I was in a meeting. First thing he told me was that Victoria was out due to personal reason. Second thing, you know, is the most magical thing I have heard in the last two months: "Sir we are going to take out the GAP record since you do not know anything about it".
Man, I finally did it after talking to around 100 random people all around the world for 2 months. He ensured that a letter will be sent out by today (7/24/17) to prove that they are going to take out the record from credit bureaus. To be honest, I would have written the letter the first day if I knew this is that easy.
I hope my story will help some people here and good luck to you all!
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Little background about myself. I came to the U.S. for college in 2009 and now I am working here as an non-resident alien. I did not have a SSN until 2014 and my credit depth is only 3 years old, and my legal first name contain two separate words. I believe credit bureaus (or creditors) messed up my first name so I was not able to retrieve my credit report (that's not uncommon because a lot of people have use the first words of my first name to be my first name and second word of my first name to be my middle name. In fact, I do not have a middle but a lot of people think so.
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