HELP, OC falsely updating current status

[Kiwill]

Hi and thank you all for all of the very valuable information and advice here.  I've been reading and learning for a few months now and really don't think I could be where I am creditwise without you.  Here's my delima:

My September 1st credit report is showing two accounts with the OC that are due to fall off by November 2010 and one judgment with the CA which was deleted after disputing as of yesterday, YAY!!  I was expecting a really nice credit score jump because I have since paid off two accounts, plus the judgment deletion.  I couldn't understand why the score decreased instead of going up, until I compared my September and October credit report and there it was, the OC is illegally updating my payment status to 90+ days past due as of Sept 2008 on my most recent report (Oct).  My September report shows 90+ days late as of Oct 2004.  This can't be legal, right.  Today, I called Equifax and explained the situation and they too have noticed that their reporting looks very wrong.  He started a reinvestigation to request verification of last payment received so hopefully this will work but I can't help but to think that they will be doing this until it falls off, which is 11/2010.  Is there anything else I could do to avoid this, probably not, right?  I don't mind much waiting until it falls off but I am very upset with the false updating.

I was soo excited yesterday!  I came home to find a preapproval letter from American Express because I have a cosco account and then opend my inbox this morning to find that they deleted my judgment.  My excitement was short lived because when I got a new score, it went down 19 points, from  644 to 626.  You think American Express will still approve me a card now that my score have dropped?

This is a glimpse of what these accounts look like:

October:

Balance - $1,672

Current Status - 120+ days past due

30 days late - 1 timie

60 days late - 1 time

90+ days late - 8 times(Sep 2008, Oct 2004, Aug 2004)

September:

Balance - $1,675

Current Status - 120+ days past due

30 days late - 1 time

60 days late - 1 time

90+ days late - 7 times (Oct 2004, Aug 2004, July 2004

This company have not received a payment from me since 2004 and only then because my DH sent it.  My payments were always ontime because they were taken from my payroll directly but then I was laid off work in 11/2003 and dh wouldn't make the payments on my behalf.  I have since been working and paying my bills on time and taking control of my financial responsibilites.  I am soo disgusted that they can do this and especially when I was soo close to reaching the 700 club.  What do I do besides wait. 

[Anonymous]

If there's still a balance on the account, then it's probably not reporting incorrectly.

What have you posted in your message?  Is this the information from a credit report from one of the CRAs?  Or is this a credit report from myfico that came with a score?  And you mean Sept 2009, right?  Or have the updated year old reporting?

I suspect that it's from myfico, and when you talked to EQ, they said, oh, we're not reporting a late payment.  If this is what happened, then the problem is that certain updates by a creditor get counted by myfico as "late payments" when that is not exactly what is being reporting by the CRAs.  Both sides will blame the other, and both will claim that they can't fix it.

On accounts where you have a balance, they can update every month (even after a charge off) to show that the account is still charged off, or it's still a collection, etc., and myfico counts that as a new late payment.  Once the balance is paid off, there should be no more "updates".

Hang in there.

[Kiwill]

Thanks Jesslyn,

There is a balance on the account.  The information I supplied in my original post is from here, myfico.com and yes, the information is from September and October 2009.  It's the OC that is in fact reporting the bogus information on purpose, I do understand that they can update the last activity but never knew that they can update my last payment by as much as four years.  Reporting that my last payment was in 2008 when in fact, the last payment was in 2004, can they really do this?  My Sept 2009 EQ report shows I last defaulted my payments in 2004 but my Oct EQ report shows that my last defaulted payment happened in 2008. I think i made them mad by disputing the information but still can they do that?

[Anonymous]

Potato, poTAHto.

Okay, so they shouldn't really report that you made a payment in 2008 if you didn't make the payment.  So you could dispute that.  But why would you?  They could have been updating every single month that you are currently 120+ days late, and that the account is a charge off or a collection account.  And that would be correct despite the 2004 CO, since you still have a balance.  I wouldn't fight it, because the last thing you want them to do is correctly report what is going on here every month.  myfico would count that update as a new late payment every month.

I would take this issue as a good thing that they are not updating every month, and that the last "late payment" was over a year ago.  You could fight it, but that could make it worse if they "updated" again . . .

This situation often arises when people dispute.  It's a dangerous thing to dispute something when a balance on that account is still due.  This is the pressure they're applying to try to get you to pay it off.

The good news is it still comes off at the same time regardless of the latest update--it's still counting from the DOFD . . .

[Kiwill]

Thanks and that sounds like a good plan but even still, if it is illegal for them to report an inaccurate late payment then I guess I can dispute it every month until it falls off.  I have the time to do it just as they do.  It'll literally take me one minute to update my dispute letter and send if it off monthly for the next year.  Maybe the credit bureau will somehow prevent them from doing that if they(CRB) continue to dispute the legitimacy of the claim and the OC can't produce proof.  HOWEVER, I don't want to do that if there is more damage they can do to my credit score.  Is there anything else the OC can do besides update this false information?

Thanks for all your advice.

[XAVIERSMAMA]

It won't be to your benefit to dispute every month.  The CRA will consider this excessive and stop reinvestigating it.  If it's a valid debt and you are not going to pay it, it's probably best to just leave it alone.

[Kiwill]

Got it!  I won't dispute the account anymore BUT I will follow-up with the CRA [with proof] that the OC is purposely re-aging my account status as a recent default by as much as four years, doing this is a Fair Credit Reporting violation and I will ask the CRA to make it accurate.  If i became 90 plus days delinquent on this account in 2008, the OC had 90 days from the delinquency to report to the reporting agencies NOT a whole year.  I have proof that they chaned the dates as recently as within the last 30 days because as I stated before, my Sept 2009 report shows 90 plus days delinquent as of  2004 and now my Oct 2009 report shows 90 plus days delinquent as of 2008.  There is for sure some deceptive practive going on.  I am really upset because my account should have reached 700 after the judgement was deleted but because of the recent "default" my score suffered dramatically.