How to remove an unknown and old zero balance judgement?

[Anonymous]

Hello all! I just signed up with myFico today, as well as truecredit.com for reports and monitoring, with the intent of working on my credit.

My credit's not terrible, just not much activity 'cause I tend to pay cash for everything. I have a few credit cards that show all good activity. They are fairly low limit with zero balance, as I pay them off whenever I use them. I know that one thing I need to do is work on getting additional credit activity going.

I did find three old accounts that I was unaware of, and thanks to the wealth of advice on these forums I have three PFD letters ready to go in the mail tomorrow. I actually don't know what two of them are for, but all three total less than $500 so I'm just going to offer to PIF for deletion and be done with it.

Now, the only other negative item is a strange tax lien that shows a zero balance, from 04/1992! It shows this info (from Equifax):

Type:     Tax Lien 

Status:     Filed

Date Filed/Reported:     04/1992

How Filed:     Unknown

Reference #:     B2PL

Released Date:      

Court:     State Government

Amount Owed:     $0

I don't know anything about this lien, and I sure haven't paid off any lien. Yet, it shows a zero balance.

If nothing else, shouldn't this have dropped off, being 15 years old?

Anyone have any recommendations on the quickest way to get this removed?

Message Edited by wtl on 04-08-2009 06:58 PM

[Anonymous]

Low balances or not, I would DV before PFD'ing. If you PFD first and wait too long you could lose your right to request DV.

As for the lien, they remain for 7 years from paid date.

Go to or contact your court house and see if you can find anything. If nothing, then I'd dispute with the CRA.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the fast response! I don't quite follow "If you PFD first and wait too long?" What does that mean? The amounts for the two unknown accounts are $269 and $11 - and there is no question of being able to pay them, I'm not in any financial trouble. I want to clear them in the quickest possible manner. I figure the is a possibility that they'll turn out to be valid debts - I just can't identify them. (They're from 2006.)

If I'm okay with paying the amounts to remove the items, why not PFD right away?

I've used a template from here on the forums which states I dispute the balance and the PFD does not acknowledge responsibility for the debt, and will follow up with a DV if no reponse is received. As long as I am sure to follow up quickly in the event of no response - isn't this an okay way to go?

If not, I'm all ears - definitely new at this.

Message Edited by wtl on 04-08-2009 07:04 PM

[Anonymous]

In case anyone else has similar circumstances, I figured I'd post an update to my situation.

I disputed the tax lien with Equifax, and they removed it.

Haven't heard back from three PFDs - will DV on May 1st to be well within 30 days from when PFDs were sent. If I can get these little items paid and cleared from my reports, I'll be completely clear of negatives on my CRs.