Just seems like wasted time

[Anonymous]

So over the past year I've went from mid 500s to upper 600's on my scores. Hard work and a lot of patience. Only to get an alert today saying my Equifax fell -38 points due to some random negative account listed. It's not mine, i have no idea where it came from, and filed a dispute. My problem with this, is it seems like it's done purposely. Credit is one big game to begin with. How is that only when I decide to "FIX" my credit, that some rendom negative just so happens to appear on my profile? 

Now that my conspiracy rant is over, hopefully this gets dealt with within the next 30 days. I'm sure you can tell I'm not at all happy today after seeing this on my dashboard. Not to mention, if it hit one, it will soon hit the other two eventually and I'll be going through this all over again. The sad part, is the last negative on my profile is set to fall off in November, and I'd be baddie free. Now this nonsense happens. This one was opened in April by whomever, and simply never payed. 

[RobertEG]

If you can truthfully state that the account is not yours, a dispute is not the way to remove it.

The furnsher can, if they have reasonable basis for concluding you are the responsible party, verify its accuracy.

Removal based on an "account not mine" assertion is done by way of the identity theft process under FCRA 605B.

Read the full procedure as set forth in detail in the sticky thread titled Victim of Idendity Theft??  at the top portion of the General Credit Topics forum.

[Anonymous]

OP, whatever this account issue is that's not yours showing up on your reports is clearly an issue that can be rectified rather quickly.  While I understand that seeing your scores drop can be disheartening, it's not like they dropped due to a baddie you caused yourself; this should be something you can bounce back from almost immediately I would think. 

[Anonymous]

I have a very common name, and have lived all over the country. That being said, this happens to me on a nearly annual basis. I no longer use the online dispute methods to deal with this, as that can take up to 30-45 days to be resolved. If you call the CRA's directly, they can look at what exactly is being reported and if all of the information doesn't match (for mine, the SSN's being reported don't match) and they remove the line immediately, while i'm on the phone, and in some cases, the new address that got associated with my account. 

If the account is actually fraudulant, and not being reported in error, which none of mine have ACTUALLY been fraud, but instead CA's with partial information matching it to me and then mailing me the bill without any SSN at all, you need to dispute the debt with the CA or lender directly. In some cases, I've had to go all the way to the original lender or whereever the debt came from, verify that I never had an account, or that the debt isn't mine, get a letter from them and send it to the CA to make them go away. There was only one case where this didn't work, and I sent the letter from the "original account holder" to Equifax and they did remove it, despite the CA being able to "verify" that the debt was mine and accurate.

I haven't had to deal with fraud, but if there is probably a ton of information here about ID theft and fixing it.

I hope it works out! Hopefully it's as simple as calling and getting it deleted on the spot for you!

- C

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the great response. I'll try giving them a call today. My immediate reaction was disputing it online which took forever to do in itself. I'll call whoever this is from and see if I can get it done that route. Thanks!

[MrsCHX]

OP if that's not your account, you have nothing to worry about as others have said. It's just an annoyance.

As to your conspiracy theory well it's not much of a conspiracy at all! If you had any old, outstanding debts that never came to anything (like I had several old medical bills), you'll find that as you fix your credit you become "collectable" again. When your credit is horrible, the threats from creditors or collection agencies is empty. But once you're making strides and adding new credit 1) you're unlikely to file BK and wipe out the debt you owe them and 2) you're more likely to quickly want to pay/Settle so as to not ruin the work you've done.

That's my theory at least!

[RonM21]

OP, keep your head up becaise this will get worked out omce you make the move to get it removed from your reports. It isn't yours amd they should not be able to verify that it is yours. It should work out, and that will go away, then onward with your progress and success!