Ok I am down to the last few on my reports and they are some of the toughest to get off. Brief history, in 2009 I had a pretty bad year. Divorce, Foreclosure, and a repo. Not to mention all the other small bills that went along with losing everything. Now fast forward to today, I have recovered well, great job, lots of cash, but still have my past haunting me.
Here are the Bad ones, and what I have done so far. Understand I am limited in some of the actions I can take because I am working overseas, and do not have availability of a phone all the time or mail service at all.
Trident Asset management : $882.00 (bounced check for utility bill) contacted them about a PFD over the phone and was told they do not do PFD, which I know of course is untrue due to the multiple posts otherwise on this forum. CSR argued and said that they will send me a letter saying it is paid in full once paid, and it is my responsibility to send that letter to the CRA and ask for it to be deleted. Explained that since they are the agency reporting to the bureau, they have the ability to stop reporting to the bureau and remove the trade line. He told me in a raised tone that he was not going to debate it with me, I can get the letter from them, and ask the CRA to delete, or just pay the bill, either way they were not going to delete. Hoping to call again in the next week to get another CSR and maybe one that understands how this works.
Credit Protection Associates: $90.00 Contacted by phone and asked to do a PFD, they claim they do not have the power to remove from credit reports, only the OC does. The OC was comcast, so I contacted Comcast. I spent 1hr 15 mins on the phone, I was transferred from the first CSR to another dept, who immediately transferred me to the Bankruptcy dept (no idea why) and they had no idea either, who in turn said they were transferring me to Billing. Now once the phone rang I was on the phone with the retention dept. The CSR whom I spoke with had no idea why I was being transferred around so much, but decided he would do the best he could with the situation. He tried locating the account, but could not determine the service address. He began telling me that companies just do not delete records like that. I asked where he was getting his policies, and he said that it just does not happen. I was very calm and explained that if the company they are having collect the debt is referring customers back to the parent company, then there has to be a reason why, and something has to be done. He said he could not find the records why I was being charged, and put in a trouble ticket. Within 24 hrs I received an email stating that I was given the incorrect information, that I paid my bill 2x in my old address, but they had no record of a disconnection notice, so they continued to bill. Asked when I vacated the home, and would see if they could get the account corrected and taken off the reports. Awaiting a reply through email now.
Wells Fargo Dealer Services: $2603.00 being claimed, CR shows $983 charge off. I contacted them by phone and explained that they recovered the asset, and sold it. I was then told they sold it at auction, for less than I owed (the $983 charge off) but they tacked on all kinds of fees, and claimed that because my ex-spouse bankrupted them, I was responsible for the bill, due to it being a joint account. Waiting for the breakdown of the bill. Awaiting that in the mail now.
American Accounts Management / Carmel Financial. $0.00 owed, paid charge off. This was a complete nightmare. Carmel financial was the OC, American Accounts Management was reporting. Numerous disputes on both of these. Now American is only reporting on TU, but Carmel is reporting on all 3. In August I was contacted directly from Carmel financial. Worked through the CSR, negotiated a settlement (out of SOL) and paid this off, my largest at the time ($6785 claimed by Carmel, American was claiming $8157) Carmel agreed to accept $2500.00 to mark the item paid in full. While talking to the CSR I mentioned that I was being collected on twice for the same account. He informed me that they do their own collections, and if anyone else was trying to collect, that I needed to dispute it with the CRA. I had done this multiple times and always came back verified. So after paying the $2500.00, I waited for everything to clear and contacted the number for American Accounts Management (same building as Carmel Financial... Carmel financial answers the phone, states that they tool over for american and that all I had to do is dispute the collection and it would be removed. So again I dispute the trade line from american, and 30 days later.... it stays on the report, and is marked with the same response that Carmel placed on the report, paid, settled for less than full amount.
I know I am going to have to live through BOA reporting the foreclosure for a while longer, not even trying to fight that one.
So I am open to some ideas on how to handle Wells, trident, and American/Carmel.
