Need Advice on a Capital One Dispute (Sorry, very long!)

[cindy6791]

Hi everyone, I'm new here but a long time lurker.  Here's my dilemma.  Back in 2006 I had a Capital One with a $4200 limit.  The card was stolen, and whomever took it managed to ring up over $1500 in gas charges within an hour.  The card was almost maxed out when stolen, but Capital One still allowed them to go nearly $1000 over the limit.  I reported the stolen card, and Capital One put it under investigation, advised me the card was frozen and to not make payments until the investigation was over.  Long story short, the investigation took a very long time because it turned out the thieves were part of a crime ring. :-/  They eventually deducted the $1500, but in the meantime I accrued nearly $1000 in over-the-limit and late fees.  At this time, I was going through a hard financial time personally because I lost my job and separated from my husband.  Stupidly, I let the card go to collections, and is now still a charge off on my report, with a balance somehow of $8700!  It's due to drop off my report at the end of 2014.  But, I'm making a big job move this fall and relocating to a new state, and I wanted to clean up my credit report prior to the move.  Fresh start!  This is the only negative item on my report, but my FICO score is<500!  The only other credit I have is a secure card for $2000 that I just opened, and student loans that I just applied to consolidate. (Since all of this happened I went back to school and got my bachelors and will have my MBA in Auguest!)  I've paid cash for everything over the last 6 years.

My question is this.  I know the amount Capital One wrote off is wrong.  I should not be liable for the over the limit, late fees, and interest on the stolen amount.  Do I have any chance of disputing this and getting the whole thing deleted?  Or, is there something else I can do to at least improve things for myself?  Or, am I just out of luck and need to ride it out?  I know I should have followed up on this at the time, and kept paying.  It was just a bad time for me and I dropped the ball.  

[DaBears]

Hi cindy6791 and welcome to the forums!!!! I would send them a Direct Dispute Letter. They will need to investigate the account. If they are not able to make any changes on how it is reporting then they will need to delete their trade line. Send this to Capital One either by e-mail or mail. 

“This is a Notice of Direct Dispute under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)(D) and 16 CFR 660.4, of the accuracy of information you have reported to my credit file.

       ►       (If sent to a debt collector, (CA), it might  be beneficial to also include the blurb:

       ►  “This is a direct dispute of credit reporting. This is not a request for debt
              validation/verification  under FDCPA §809(b).”.
                  (don’t let them just simply sluff it off as a meaningless  DV letter)

(Provide the following requirements of the rules, as detailed under 16 CFR 660.4):

 “Identification of the specific information being disputed:
           (specify the account number, and the specific information that is disputed under

             that identifying account)

“Basis for the dispute:

            (how the reporting was inaccurate;    was any reporting in violation of any statutory or

             regulatory provisions?  account or express agreements?  CRA reporting gudelines? Account not

              yours? etc.)

“Supporting documentation:

            (all documents that support your dispute; it is recommended that you also send,

             as part of your documentation, at least a copy of the portion only of your

             recent credit report showing their reporting of the disputed information to your credit file.

Sincerely, 

[rckstrscott]

---

@cindy6791 wrote:

Hi everyone, I'm new here but a long time lurker.  Here's my dilemma.  Back in 2006 I had a Capital One with a $4200 limit.  The card was stolen, and whomever took it managed to ring up over $1500 in gas charges within an hour.  The card was almost maxed out when stolen, but Capital One still allowed them to go nearly $1000 over the limit.  I reported the stolen card, and Capital One put it under investigation, advised me the card was frozen and to not make payments until the investigation was over.  Long story short, the investigation took a very long time because it turned out the thieves were part of a crime ring. :-/  They eventually deducted the $1500, but in the meantime I accrued nearly $1000 in over-the-limit and late fees.  At this time, I was going through a hard financial time personally because I lost my job and separated from my husband.  Stupidly, I let the card go to collections, and is now still a charge off on my report, with a balance somehow of $8700!  It's due to drop off my report at the end of 2014.  But, I'm making a big job move this fall and relocating to a new state, and I wanted to clean up my credit report prior to the move.  Fresh start!  This is the only negative item on my report, but my FICO score is<500!  The only other credit I have is a secure card for $2000 that I just opened, and student loans that I just applied to consolidate. (Since all of this happened I went back to school and got my bachelors and will have my MBA in Auguest!)  I've paid cash for everything over the last 6 years.

My question is this.  I know the amount Capital One wrote off is wrong.  I should not be liable for the over the limit, late fees, and interest on the stolen amount.  Do I have any chance of disputing this and getting the whole thing deleted?  Or, is there something else I can do to at least improve things for myself?  Or, am I just out of luck and need to ride it out?  I know I should have followed up on this at the time, and kept paying.  It was just a bad time for me and I dropped the ball.  

---

Those fees and the charge amount looks to me about on par with a 4200 dollar charge off.. Did Capiral One give you a reason why they were billing you late fees while THEY investigated? Did you just ignore it or were you working with them during the process? Do you have documentation?

Have you called them since?

Did you report your card stolen to the police or file a police report? 

Just trying to get a handle of what youve done to this point

-scott

[rckstrscott]

---

@DaBears wrote:

Hi cindy6791 and welcome to the forums!!!! I would send them a Direct Dispute Letter. They will need to investigate the account. If they are not able to make any changes on how it is reporting then they will need to delete their trade line. Send this to Capital One either by e-mail or mail. 

“This is a Notice of Direct Dispute under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)(D) and 16 CFR 660.4, of the accuracy of information you have reported to my credit file.

       ►       (If sent to a debt collector, (CA), it might  be beneficial to also include the blurb:

       ►  “This is a direct dispute of credit reporting. This is not a request for debt
              validation/verification  under FDCPA §809(b).”.
                  (don’t let them just simply sluff it off as a meaningless  DV letter)

(Provide the following requirements of the rules, as detailed under 16 CFR 660.4):

 “Identification of the specific information being disputed:
           (specify the account number, and the specific information that is disputed under

             that identifying account)

“Basis for the dispute:

            (how the reporting was inaccurate;    was any reporting in violation of any statutory or

             regulatory provisions?  account or express agreements?  CRA reporting gudelines? Account not

              yours? etc.)

“Supporting documentation:

            (all documents that support your dispute; it is recommended that you also send,

             as part of your documentation, at least a copy of the portion only of your

             recent credit report showing their reporting of the disputed information to your credit file.

Sincerely, 

---

Just because the consumer asserts there is an issue with reporting doesn't mean there nessicarily is...  to say 'if they are not able to make any changes on how it is reporting then they will need to delete' isn't really accurate.. they can investigate and deem that no changes are required to be made... 

With that said, I agree the end game should likely be a dispute.. I just don't know if I want to go right to this tactic without knowing what type of evidence there is to backup my claim

-scott

[goosedog]

How long did the investigation take? A late fee is only 35 dollars each month. Normally investigations by law should not take more than 60 days to investigate. Something about this seems off. There has to be more to this story.

1500 in gas an an hour will automatically alert./spike the fraud department to shut that card off.

And 1,000 in late fees and over the limit fee? hmmm. A 35 late fee and 35 over the limit fee is 70 dollars a month. That would mean the investigation took over 14 months to complete.

[cindy6791]

The investigation took from Sept through January of the following year. And I guess when it hit $1500  is when the fraud department was alerted, because Capital One contacted me after I reported the card stolen. It wasn't just my card at this gas station that was used for this, it was a whole thing going on with them, and that's why the investigation took so long. It was in the local paper and everything. I completely dropped the ball and didn't follow up on this when it happened, nor did I document anything.  I should have disputed the additional charges at the time, but honestly it was a really tough time for me and I just let it go.  I'm not making excuses and I own up to being completely irresponsible at the time, and while the amount was wrong, I did owe my own balance that I didn't pay.

 When the amount was first written off and sent to a collections company I remember it was in the low $6000 range.  I honestly haven't did anything with it the last 5 years and am not sure what all the $8000 balance entails of.  There's really not any more to the story.  I pretty much just blew it off when it happened instead of following up.  Dumb on my part, but I can't change time.