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Sovereign Bank is reporting a charged off account from 2007 on my credit reports. When I call Sovereign about the the account and give them the account number, they tell me that the account number is not a number of theirs. My Social Security number is not in their system (I DID have a bank account with them years ago, but it's been closed for so long that my profile got deleted) and they can't pull it up.
They Advise me to dispute it with the three bureaus, which I did. They came back as "Updated". I called Sovereign again and asked how it was updated if they can't even find it, and they didn't know. Had me dispute it again. Which I did
Came back again as updated. Ever time I call up Sovereign, they tell me "they can't help you here, go to this department" and bounce me around back and fourth to customer service to collects and back. I've been to two branches to try and speak to someone in person, and they can't get ANYWHERE on a branch level.
So, what do I do now? I've asked to speak to supervisors, and they're either in a meeting or will call me back, 7 times now. I've written letters to Soverein, e-mailed upper management, everything.
I have a similar issue, with OWCEN. I was advised to send in copies of the credit report along with a letter explaining the situation. They also have no record of my husband or I on file. I also sent another dispute to the CRAs stating that the representative (with his ID and full name) stated that he cannot locate any account with our names. It was updated with each dispute, so not sure if this one will work either. I wrote a letter to the OC citing the FRCA and included that with my copy of the credit report to them. To make it worse it is double reported. I hope this step will work. I will let you know if it does the trick, but you could just as well do the same process and see what happens.
bump
Then you have an issue of possible violation of FCRA 623(b)(1), under which you can file a formal complaint with the FTC, or bring your own legal action.
Section 623(b)(1) requires the furnisher of any information, upon receiving notice of dispute, to investigate the accuracy of the disputed information, and based on the results of that investigation, accurately report the results to the CRA.
If they are stating to you that they are unable to verify the accuracy of their reporting, then reporting a finding of accuracy back to the CRA is a prima facie violation of the statute.
I would immediately file a formal complaint with the FTC for their violation of section 623(b)(1), and additionally throw in an inherent violation of section 623(a)(2), which mandates their duty, upon having knowledge of the inaccuracy of reporting, to timely update their reporting with the CRAs.
I agree that Section 623 is being violated, but should the OP send a 623 letter to Sovereign. I've found that even after a mess like this the OC may act when they get the letter CMRRR. Failure to respond adds another violation. How willing are consumer attorney's to sue on contingency 623 violations?
The FTC won't act on individual complaints. The bank regulator will. So find out the regulator of Sovereign (Probably the OCC) and make a formal complain there. They WILL contact the bank. It might be worth contacting the state Banking Dept as well. Send copies of the complaints to the bank CEO.
Sovereign is a lousy bank but a BBB complaint might also get attention.
As the saga continues, I have since received a letter from Sovereign bank that states:
"Your Charged Off Sovereign Bank account # ********** Has been corrected to show paid and closed as of 11/2007 with a current balance of 0 and amount past due 0. your account has been reported as "paid in full" to the credit reporting agencies......"
That letter came in 11/12/2012
Still reporting today as charged off.
Thoughts?