How to deal with Cont. Finance lates

[Anonymous]

Hey, all.

So, I have a builder card from Continental Finance (their Verve card) that has been compromised with rounds of bogus charges twice within the last six months. Each time I racked up lates (first time was 30, 60, 90 date late and second time was 30, 60 day late) because I didn't want to pay the charges that weren't mine, my account was locked, etc. I was stubborn and ticked off and they were NOT helpful.

So.... How do I deal with these now? The card is paid in full and I have my third new card number with them. I'm about ready to close it. It's just a $500 CL and has been such a hassle! For anyone who has dealt with them before, which method do you think has the best odds of success:

1) Keep the card open, monitor it for bogus charges every day, and GW the heck out of them to remove the lates.

2) Close the card and try to get them to remove the entire trade line from my CR's? The card is only about two years old. I'm not TOO worried about it hurting my AAoA. I think the lates are hurting my scores much, much more.

We are hoping to secure a mortgage within the next six months to a year, and I know these lates are going to tank my chances of being on the mortgage app with my husband.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any ideas? I'm leaning towards closing the account and seeing if they will just delete the whole tradeline...

[IOBA]

If the card issuer agreed the charges were fraud, and removed the charges, then the lates should also be removed.  

And with every card i have ever had, if I had a charge (or two) in dispute status, then it was removed from the total due and no interest or fees were charged.  By default, there were no lates reported.

Have you asked the card issuer to remove the lates?  What was their response?

If they won't remove the lates, I would either dispute the lates with the CB or ask for the tradelines to be deleted.

As for the last card, keep it open and monitor for fraud charges.

[RobertEG]

The identity theft process of FCRA 605B was added to the FCRA precisely to aid consumers by permitting them to obtain the block from their credit reports of any information that they assert to have resulted from an account or transaction that they did not authorize.

The assertion need only be backed by a sworn police report, and the process excludes any participation or approval of the creditor or other furnisher of the reported information.

I would consider getting the information blocked from your credit report, and thus from scoring.

Check out the sticky post on Identity Theft in the upper segment of the General Credit Topics forum for a detailed discussion of how to get reporting blocked.