topic Re: Equifax duplicate accounts in General Credit Topics

Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:25:26 GMT

I started working on paying off my old debts, and last year I also disputed online with the credit bureaus any duplicates, etc. Cleaned up my report as best as possible.

I had a negative with GCFS (which was the CA in charge of a Providian account I had), and I PIF in two payments, 2nd payment was a month later. They hadnt updated my report, so I submitted an online dispute... next I see, 'they' updated the balance to 0 and to show it was paid but there was a second entry now - showing unpaid!

So I submitted an online dispute again - I saved a screen capture of my report from the dispute process - you can see here, the bottom one, I disputed and they updated; the top is the new addition.

So you can see top one I disputed with Equifax - in the descriptive I made it clear it was a duplicate entry I was disputing, and this is the crap I get in response:

We have researched the collection account. Account # - D6483xxxx The results are:

>>> We have researched the collection account. Account # - 6483xxxx The results are: This item has been
updated to report as paid in full. Additional information has been provided from the original source regarding this item.
If you have additional questions about this item please contact: Greater Calif Fin Svcs, PO Box 3470, Paso
Robles CA 93447-3470
Greater California Financial S; Collection Reported 04/2010; Assigned 06/2007; Creditor Class - Banking; Client - Providian
National Bank; Amount - $1,199 ; Status as of 04/2010 - Paid; Date of 1st Delinquency 09/2003; Balance as of 04/2010 - $0 ; Last
Payment Date 03/2010; Joint Account; Account # - 6483xxxx; ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - Consumer Disputes This Account
Information; Collection Account; Address: PO Box 3470 Paso Robles CA 93447-3470

So where do I go from here? Im reading mixed replies in others threads - call or write, or call GCFS... should I try online dispute one more time...

p.s. EX did not show it as duplicated. TU did not either, but when I disputed because the balance was not correct, they deleted it altogether. So its only EQ thats being the butt here.. and that leads me to believe its EQ that double reported, not GCFS

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

LIGHTNIN — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:31:40 GMT

One looks like a joint account and the other one an individual account.

Did you have a joint account with someone else?

I would contact GCFS because it looks like the CA is reporting 2 different accounts. 1 joint and 1 individual.

Ask GCFS if there is 2 accounts under your name.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:15:19 GMT

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in my post. I had noticed this as well - that one said joint and the other individual.

No, it was never joint. Only one account, ever.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

smallfry — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:14:11 GMT

I can't help as far as what to do with EQ but I noticed a similar thing on my SO's reports last month. It's a medical collection due to fall off the reports entirely by the end of 2011. It was listed by another JDB 3 years ago then fell off a couple of years ago. This account is listed in the negative accounts section of the online EQ report like the one you screen captured. It is listed as joint. Might mean joint with the hospital? I have no idea how EQ would let someone report this as a joint account. I am not stressing over it. It's Premium Asset Recovery collecting for a bill from 2004 in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:35:15 GMT

It looks like either the CA or EQ have slightly changed the account number for whatever reason, adding a character at the front and changing a number to a letter second to last - and I'm pretty sure somebody should edit those out of the post for your privacy.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:45:32 GMT

Oh geez I didnt realize I hadnt xxx'd out the account numbers in the paragraph - thanks.

I guess I will need to write a letter to the bureau and CA.

According to my past files, the one starting with D is the old one, the one that should have been updated.

According to Experian CR:

Jan 8th - Status Details: This account is scheduled to continue on record until Jun 2010.
Jan 23rd - Status Details were removed.

April 7th - still no status saying when to be removed.

The date placed for collection is in 2007.

According to TransUnion CR:

Jan 12th - Estimated date that this item will be removed: 08/2010

April 7th - TU deleted the record (I had disputed it as it wasnt updated balance wise)

And as we know Equifax:

Jan 12th - listed only in collections.... states

Date of 1 st Delinquency:

09/2003

so according to this, the drop off date should be September of this year?

If Im not mistaken, I believe I read that when the OC record becomes outdated (7 year mark) and has to be removed, that the CA record must also be removed, is this correct?

My concern is we want to move by early fall, and if the bureaus dont remove it on time, and I have to dispute, that could mean 30-60 more days having to wait if not longer. And if that takes too long we cant just wait for them to decide when to remove it, which is why I feel I should get after them and make sure they get rid of this duplicate entry....

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

smallfry — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:12:41 GMT

Deletion could be as much as 180 days past the 7 year mark from DOFD. However I have seen most fall off EQ before the 7 year mark. Who knows why they do what they do sometimes?

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:22:58 GMT

I have another question.

The one account that should be on the record, since its paid off shouldnt it not be in 'collections' any longer? They are not collecting on it, so shouldnt it be moved into the negative/closed accounts section?

Im working on a letter to both GCFS and Equifax and am trying to figure out what to say in regards to this...

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:32:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have another question.

The one account that should be on the record, since its paid off shouldnt it not be in 'collections' any longer? They are not collecting on it, so shouldnt it be moved into the negative/closed accounts section?

Im working on a letter to both GCFS and Equifax and am trying to figure out what to say in regards to this...

No, it will always be a collection account, just a paid one.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:20:48 GMT

GCFS (Greater California Financial Services) is a complete joke.

They're not widely known enough to be notorious for their FDCPA violations, but they certainly do not abide by them.

I have been requesting debt validation from them for over a year with no response. When I complain/dispute with other agencies they tell them it's "already resolved".

They are dirty CA scum. I'm getting ready to sue those a'holes.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

RobertEG — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:32:49 GMT

You only have legal accounts with an OC, not a debt collector.

Collection "accounts" are credit reporting mechanisms solely between the CA and the CRA.

When you pay a CA, they dont "close" anything. They do two status updates. The first is to update the CA "account" status with the CRA to show paid. The second is to update the balance of debt owed to $0. Neither of these removes the prior reporting of the collection itself from your CR, or from FICO scoring. These reportings are important primarily for a manual review of your CR, to show you have paid, but not for FICO scoring.

Deletion of a CA from your CR is the sole responsibility of the CRAs. The CRA looks at only one date...... the recorded DOFD on the OC account that led up to the collection. Once 7 1/2 years has passed from the DOFD on the OC account, the responsibility is with the CRA to then discontinue any inclusion of the CA in any credit report they issue. That, of course, then also removes it from FICO scoring.

If the CA reporting is still showing unpaid, and you have evidence of payment, I really dont see this as a significant credit reporting, and certainly not a FICO scoring, issue. It is still a collection that FICO scores, until it hits its 7 1/2 years from DOFD, and the CA has nothing to do with that determination.

The significance of paid or unpaid, in my opinion, is what you can do if they should be stupid enough to now bring legal action against you for any unpaid debt.

Then payment is something you can show in court.

Re: Equifax duplicate accounts

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:56:00 GMT

Hey what ever happened with this? The same exact thing has happened to me. I disputed the error and the both were removed and then two months later it was added back. I have the confirmation letter form Equifax that the item was paid in full.