topic Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS in General Credit Topics

BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 01:52:51 GMT

I have never posted in a forum before yet I have never felt so at a lose for helpful information This has to do with AMERICAN EXPRESS and the CRAs I hope someone learns something from what I am about to write I started monitoring my credit 2 years ago and quickly realized that because my American Express DOESNT have a limit reported any amount of debt that happens to get reported to the bureaus in a month would be deducted from the total of the basic limits of 56,000 my flexible spending accounts reported THIS is to calculate A FICO How can I have a credit card that’s PAID IN FULL MONTHLY and HAS NO LIMIT I SOMEHOW LOSE POINTS So I pull my husbands credit and what I found I am still BATTLING 8 MONTHS LATER! There was a 28002 limit and 14971 monthly payment being reported for his Amex for YEARS When I caught it CRAS BLAME AMEX VISCA VERSA Until I pointed out to American Express that it’s impossible THAT ALL 3 CRAS be wrong to the penny American Express quickly said they would send out the demand to all them TO CORRECT THE MISS INFORMATION Months later nothing so I call them all back all a waste of time So I file a complaint with the CFPB on all three bureaus I got the result today and have been on the phone with all of them once again EQUIFAX denied my dispute saying American Express verified the information to be accurate but they updated my last payment date to 2011 WHY I HAVE I GET NO EXPLANATION TRANSUNION took the payment off but didnt remove it off the history nor correct the payment history AMOUNTS and still shows a limit of 28002 EQUIFAX just removed the entire account and claims thats what AMERICAN EXPRESS told them to do THEN AMERICAN EXPRESS JUST KEEPS SENDING ME A LETTER STATING THAT I AM CORRECT AND THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY HAVE DONE EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO TELL THE BUREAUS TO CORRECT THE FILE BLAH BLAH I have called a bunch of credit reporting attorney none of them deal with cases like this Now planning a complaint with my local attorney general I want to gain as much knowledge and insight on my rights and how to go about finding a SOLUTION ! Thanks to anyone who reads this. I hope nobody ever has to experience it

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

redpat — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:05:10 GMT

I’m confused, is this a charge card?

Charge cards just report the balance and don’t count in CC utilization.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:16:33 GMT

I think you need a new keyboard as it is missing the period key.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

ToughFistFight — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:16:57 GMT

There are some big brains here. They will be able to help. Possibly explain in a little more detail what happened? I'm confused also. Thank you!

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:34:40 GMT

I really tried reading through this to fully understand it. I think I'm usually pretty good at this kind of thing, but this was an entirely different animal. Maybe when you've calmed down a bit you can write this more coherently for us to understand.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Jnbmom — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:40:08 GMT

This needs some periods and paragraphs, very hard to follow??

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Pikaboo-icu — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:44:08 GMT

Op-

Can you give us the facts without the emotion.

Perhaps we can help you.

Nearest I can tell is you're saying you have a no limit charge card and it's being reported as a limit of: $28002. on all three CBs?

Its likely reporting the highest balance you reached on the card.

It should not affect your score as the utilized credit limit amount is not considered in your uti of your credit card limits.

If you can clarify with some facts, we might be able to direct you better.

Thanks

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:49:42 GMT

Close all of your American Express accounts. You are an unreasonable cardmember.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Pikaboo-icu — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:55:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Close all of your American Express accounts. You are an unreasonable cardmember.

KICK- Keep It Classy K

I believe the OP is confused. This is their FIRST time posting on any forum.

The post seems confused, not unreasonable.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 02:57:46 GMT

She has received guidance and answers from four different institutions. She is not confused -- she just doesn't like the answer. My recommended course of action stands.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

K-in-Boston — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 03:27:19 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
Op-

Can you give us the facts without the emotion.
Perhaps we can help you.

Nearest I can tell is you're saying you have a no limit charge card and it's being reported as a limit of: $28002. on all three CBs?
Its likely reporting the highest balance you reached on the card.
It should not affect your score as the utilized credit limit amount is not considered in your uti of your credit card limits.

If you can clarify with some facts, we might be able to direct you better.
Thanks

@Anonymous, first off welcome to the forums. It is expected behavior that the highest reported balance will always show for Amex charge cards. If this is a charge card with No preset Spending Limit (Green, Gold, Platinum, or variants thereof), modern credit scoring models do not take the balances into account for utilization. Where are you getting the scores? Vantage Scores such as those from Credit Karma will always be sensitive to things that FICO models actually used by almost lenders ignore or treat differently. Can you give us some more information like which card this is, how long the card has been opened, etc?

If you could type any replies in paragraphs with punctuation, it would certainly help us to read and to help you. Everyone else, please remember to keep this FSR.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

JR_TX — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 04:49:51 GMT

@OUT-Disputed;
First, you need to tell us where you’re getting your scores from. CRAs also offer Vantage scores which pretty much mean squat in the credit and banking world!
And No, FICO wouldn’t penalize you for having a high balance on an NPSL or charge card unless you have no other revolving accounts (3 revolving accts is needed for score optimization) showing on your report. There are also other various factors in the FICO algorithm that affect your scores. I suggest you read up on FICO scoring to have a much better grasp of it. Lastly, it will help a lot of the myFICO world heavy hitters give you a better advice if you can provide us some more Data Points in relation to your credit concerns, i.e., your number of revolving accts, Average age of Accts, Total Revolving Credit Limit, Utilization (aggregate), Derogatory accts (if any), Inquiries, etc...
Lastly, Welcome to the myFICO community! Sit back, relax a bit and I promise you, you’ll get all your answers here in no time!

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 13:13:01 GMT

I am sorry. Thanks In advance for any and all feed back. So here goes... all truth... no emotion.. I have credit monitoring accounts with TransUnion, Equifax and Experian as well as all my credit cards, Costco card, triple AAA Cards also all come with their own credit monitoring or score tracking accounts which I monitor as well. So accumulatively my other cards report 56,000 and I keep them all paid off monthly one month when I had all my other cards paid of yet American Express reported 18,000 which was paid in full that same month I saw my debt ratio go up and my credit score go down. When I called all the bureaus they each said it was because American Express doesn’t report an amount and there is nothing they can do I needed to talk to American Express. This made me look at my husbands report and when I did I saw why we had to pay 214,000 for our condo because he couldn’t get a loan. There has been a monthly payment of 14,271 and a credit limit of 28,002 being reported as far back as 2 years based on my records! This is the same account giving me problems for not reporting a limit??!! So I filed a disputed they denied it so I filed another one they all denied it and Experian told me i could never dispute it again. That’s when I called American Express back and they told me they NEVER WOULD REPORT A LIMIT ITS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO ON A PLATINUM CARD. I asked then how do ALL THREE CRAs have it to the same penny amount wrong? They then quickly apologize claimed they where sending an immediate demand to all CRAs to fix the miss information..: this is over the course of a year by now. Nothing happens after a month I call American Express back go thru the same conversation ending with the same empty promise. So I filed a complaint with the CFPB on all three bureaus they wouldn’t even try to fix it. I waited thinking that it was definitely going to be resolved. When I got the read the dispute investigation conclusions I became at a lose for where to go and what to do... Equifax says when they called American Express to verify the disputed information they told them to remove the account from the report completely so they did. TransUnion removed the monthly payment as due but not from 24 months back of the monthly payment due yet shows ND for for payment history and says the last payment made was 4/2011! Experian removed the monthly payment but not the limit. I am being told by them I am not allowed to file another dispute on this account!! So now I have to put my heart in to what my conviction here is..:I am going to the attorney general! I am blessed to have a wealthly husband but came from a wonderful single mom with three kids I CAN NOT BEAR THE FACT if they treat my multi millionaire husband like this it could only be worse for people struggling in life with there finances and then battle the CRAs and lenders to get “their “ report correct! Thanks again I hope that better helps you understand so you can offer up ANY ADVICE. J

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 13:29:09 GMT

i tried to stay out of this but something's not adding up.

OP, you and your husband attempted to buy a condo, and you couldn't get a loan but you never looked into your/his credit then? You had an account reporting 51% utilization for years and no one ever noticed?

If what you're saying is accurate then your dispute is not with the credit reporting agencies; its with American Express and your husband. How do I say this nicely...maybe he has an "authorized user" you don't know about

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

RonM21 — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 13:40:34 GMT

Op, there is a lot going on here. To be honest, with the numerous tries that you have had trying to get this resolved to a way that is satisfying to you, it would appear that there is something in this process that you are misunderstanding, and that is why every effort you are making to challenge the sitaution is not working.

But that is okay. We all have times when we need to understand things better. What I would suggest is that if you are uncomfortable with how the Charge cards function and report, maybe consider closing them and try to stick with regular unsecured cards in the future. Then, you can eliminate this from being a headache for you. Also, be careful with how you dispute with the bureaus, and be sure you have all of your info lined up and it is worth a dispute. Understand that from the Bureau's end, they may look at these multiple disputes as abuse.

Other thoughts....always keep up with your credit reports. You stated more or less that the expense to buy a condo caught you off guard, then you figured out why later, and you believed it was due to what was happening on the credit reports. Keeping up with each account monthly and how the info is reported will help keep anything from catching you off guard. Also, any scores that you are using, make sure they are Fico scores. You mentioned following up on a bunch of scores offered by different lenders or accounts you have. Many of those scores could be Vantage 3.0 scores, which are rarely if ever, used by any lender to make credit decisions.

Last, I know you started this whole thing off as a warning to others. Thank you for trying to be helpful. The info you gave can be a learning experience from different angles. And you are right - No matter how much money you have, that does not matter to the Bureau's and they will treat everyone the same.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

dynamicvb — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 15:23:43 GMT

I'm trying to follow this, but having a hard time. But it seems to me the OP thinks this is a problem with utilization. That is an easy fix with the millions in the bank. Just pay the card down to 0 or close to it before the statement cuts. Any hit from utilization will go away immediately.

OP, you mention the ND on the payments, that is no data so it's not helping or hurting your score. I'm wondering if there is something else hurting the score here that has nothing to do with utilization.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 12:34:03 GMT

I am greatful for everyones patients with me being a newbie to this whole talking to a forum thing.....MYFICO as well as my husbands is unfortunately a race i run every month! I mean this in the way I am always making sure my payments post before they report EVERY MONTH! To better explaine my circumstance... I am 34 my husband is 67.... He was born a trust fund baby and as much money as he has;he lacks in real world experience! This is a fact that makes my marriage dually beneficial! He would tell you "I teach him so much!" and i will respond "I know!" Coming from a life of harsh reality I find I am the one that was born to advantage in the way I know how to survive and not settle...So when I got married 3 years ago I was in 30,000 debt from A MEDICAL BILL! Before I met my amazing husband I never thought I would have a good credit score! When we got married I asked him if we didnt have a lavish wedding could we put the money we would spend towards my credit debt.. He amazingly paid it off for me! So I was and am completly knew to the whole arena of "CREDIT". I have only been trying to learn as I go. Yet find it astonishing how many people with credit are not even aware of what is reported. My husband has enough wealth that he normally pays cash for everything anyway. It was a rare instance he tried to finance the condo. It wasnt until i started questioning it he understood how it effected him! So moving forward i still need help!!!! Amex as i breathe here today is blaming the bureaus...Equifax put the account back on but with ND for the payment history of an account established in 2000; Experian hasnt removed the limit but removed the $14002 monthly payment "as due" but still not from the reflection of "payment due" history going back 3 years! Then Transunion randomely suspened my monitoring account...even though I have proof i paid they claim for "SECURITY REASONS"? What might be confusing in my explanation is when i say "I" i mean "WE" because my husband is a corporate tax accoutant and hasnt dealt with this further than what I explain to him is going on. I dont believe that just because somebody has enough money to not need financing they deserve to have misinformation reported! I also have documented proof that as i run the "AMAZINGLY ENDLESS RACE" of paying all my accounts before they get reported EVERYTIME i have disputed this account they take at least 21 points from the FICO when all the updated being reported are all positive! I can show on a graph how everytime I disputed the account MIRACULOUSLY my{husbands}FICO WOULD DROP! I am hiring an attorney in January! This has emotionally sucked me dry! Does anyone know of an attorney in california that deals in cases like this? Thanks in advance again:}

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 12:44:57 GMT

So if I activate a monitoring account would you all be able to actually see what I am talking about? I seriously want to show you what i am saying! Also i know its not me confused because Amex totally agrees with me and claims they have "DEMANDED ALL THREE BUREAUS" to remove and update all the miss information! The head of the credit report dispute department was talking to the "the head of FCRA COMPLIANCE department of Equifax while i was on the phone and both men stated they where boggled by what was reflecting! I have 7 "control numbers" as proof! I feel its a game of each entity "passing the buck"!

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 13:01:30 GMT

Your posts are utterly exhausting to read.

Re: BEWARE AMEX and CRAs USELESS

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 13:06:49 GMT

STRESS FEELS THE SAME FOR EVERYONE NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE!