topic Re: Another Child Support Issue in Rebuilding Your Credit

Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:30:58 GMT

I have been paying my child support and arrearage after finding steady employment now for over 2 yrs. In that time, I have worked extremely hard to knock the arrearage out ($15,000 in 2008 to $3,000 at the beginning of 2010). I have been constantly fighting with the child support services in my state to correctly report the amount that I owe on my credit report. I currently have disputes being investigated w/ all three credit agencies. The dilema I'm having is due to the negative information on my credit reports, my credit scores are in the low to high 600's. However, when I apply for a loan to buy a car, everyone is telling me that my FICO score is 0. I don't understand this at all. In the meantime, I have applied for a secured credit card, attempting to find the culprit of the deceptive information from the child support agency (as of this afternoon, the county circuit clerks office has on record that I'm $8400 in arrears while my credit reports all state $7100), and will pay off a couple of medical bills that I was disputing w/ my insurance company.

Can someone please explain why my credit reports have my scores as 600+ while lenders are reporting a 0?

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:53:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have been paying my child support and arrearage after finding steady employment now for over 2 yrs. In that time, I have worked extremely hard to knock the arrearage out ($15,000 in 2008 to $3,000 at the beginning of 2010). I have been constantly fighting with the child support services in my state to correctly report the amount that I owe on my credit report. I currently have disputes being investigated w/ all three credit agencies. The dilema I'm having is due to the negative information on my credit reports, my credit scores are in the low to high 600's. However, when I apply for a loan to buy a car, everyone is telling me that my FICO score is 0. I don't understand this at all. In the meantime, I have applied for a secured credit card, attempting to find the culprit of the deceptive information from the child support agency (as of this afternoon, the county circuit clerks office has on record that I'm $8400 in arrears while my credit reports all state $7100), and will pay off a couple of medical bills that I was disputing w/ my insurance company.

Can someone please explain why my credit reports have my scores as 600+ while lenders are reporting a 0?

Unfortunately, child support agencies are notoriously slow in updating information. Some, if not much, of the problem stems from the various layers involved in the process. Once you pay, the local Child Support Collections Unit will notify the local Child Support Enforcement Unit who, in turn needs to inform CSEU on the state level and then, if there are no other layers to navigate, will inform the credit bureau reporting side what to report to the credit bureaus.

Hopefully someone will come along here and shed some light on your credit score question as I am not sure about that one.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:06:31 GMT

Hi ChildsupportReform,

Welcome!

IMO, your disputes through the CRA are a good move. Also, be willing to send them paperwork to confirm your numbers if the disputes come back verified.

Now, your scores. First off - where are you pulling your scores from? That would be helpful to know.

It appears that you're pulling your credit reports. If you also pull a FICO score from this site (google "myfico discount codes" first) and bring it in with you when apping for a car, perhaps they can explain to you what they're looking at as far as credit scores are concerned.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:54:08 GMT

Thank you, but what concerns me is that on my credit report Child Support is reporting a past due balance of $7,196 with a balance of $1,098. However, my trip down to the county circuit clerk's office this afternoon reports just the opposite; they have me owing a balance of $7,196, which is totally wrong! On top of disputing my credit reports, I have also contacted my governor's office about this as well. I think I'll stop by my local state representative's office on Monday before work. The only time that I was successful in getting child support to listen to me was when I had my lawyer step in. They still found a way to put the burden back on me, and now my lawyer is tired of dealing with me and them.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:02:18 GMT

Thank you beamMeup!

I think that I'm going to beat child support to the punch and send them some supporting documents for my dispute. I need this thing resolved quickly! I have some training to attend next month and it would be best for me to drive there. As far as my scores, I've pulled them from just about everywhere! This site, freecreditreport, as well as all three agencies! I've been in so much disbelief that I had to see what information was out there about me. It was like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone!

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:51:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have been paying my child support and arrearage after finding steady employment now for over 2 yrs. In that time, I have worked extremely hard to knock the arrearage out ($15,000 in 2008 to $3,000 at the beginning of 2010). I have been constantly fighting with the child support services in my state to correctly report the amount that I owe on my credit report. I currently have disputes being investigated w/ all three credit agencies. The dilema I'm having is due to the negative information on my credit reports, my credit scores are in the low to high 600's. However, when I apply for a loan to buy a car, everyone is telling me that my FICO score is 0. I don't understand this at all. In the meantime, I have applied for a secured credit card, attempting to find the culprit of the deceptive information from the child support agency (as of this afternoon, the county circuit clerks office has on record that I'm $8400 in arrears while my credit reports all state $7100), and will pay off a couple of medical bills that I was disputing w/ my insurance company.

Can someone please explain why my credit reports have my scores as 600+ while lenders are reporting a 0?

Are all of the tradelines on your credit report in dispute, by chance? Do you have open, active tradelines when you pull your credit reports? Can you copy & paste your tradelines here (minus account numbers, and other personally identifying information)? It'd help to know what, exactly, is on your credit report, and how (exactly) it's being reported.

There's no such thing as a zero FICO score. Lack of recent credit history can result in the inability of FICO to generate a credit score for you, however.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:57:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you, but what concerns me is that on my credit report Child Support is reporting a past due balance of $7,196 with a balance of $1,098. However, my trip down to the county circuit clerk's office this afternoon reports just the opposite; they have me owing a balance of $7,196, which is totally wrong! On top of disputing my credit reports, I have also contacted my governor's office about this as well. I think I'll stop by my local state representative's office on Monday before work. The only time that I was successful in getting child support to listen to me was when I had my lawyer step in. They still found a way to put the burden back on me, and now my lawyer is tired of dealing with me and them.

Just to be clear, have you been paying your arears back, in addition to keeping up your current payments in full?

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:17:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you, but what concerns me is that on my credit report Child Support is reporting a past due balance of $7,196 with a balance of $1,098. However, my trip down to the county circuit clerk's office this afternoon reports just the opposite; they have me owing a balance of $7,196, which is totally wrong! On top of disputing my credit reports, I have also contacted my governor's office about this as well. I think I'll stop by my local state representative's office on Monday before work. The only time that I was successful in getting child support to listen to me was when I had my lawyer step in. They still found a way to put the burden back on me, and now my lawyer is tired of dealing with me and them.
Just to be clear, have you been paying your arears back, in addition to keeping up your current payments in full?

That could also be a reason.

Best to have his local CSEU perform an account audit and give him an up-to-date accounting. If that doesn't discover the error, than it's probably the lag time between the various departments updating their records. This often happens.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:48:20 GMT

Not everything is in dispute. The child support and two collections that I have no idea where they came from. One collection is a medical bill for $54, which I'll pay if they can prove to me where it came from, because I have no idea where it generated from (some emergency bill & I haven't used emergency services). The other is a cell phone bill, which might be some mistaken identity stuff. I've been trying for months to get Sprint to stop sending me correspondence regarding someone's account who has the same name as me, but lives in another state.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:52:21 GMT

Of course, yes. It's part of the same court order. There's a huge mistake being made somewhere, and it's killing me to get down to where the problem is, because as you all know child support is NEVER wrong. I was getting updates from them when I paid my arreage down like clockwork; 12,000, 8,000, and finally 3,000. After that, all the problems began to happen and the snowball (dungball really) is getting bigger and bigger.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:58:21 GMT

I've already gone down to the county circuit clerks office and had them print out all the payments that I've made so that I could use that in an argument, but that was even wrong. The lady that was helping me said that she was going to call another department to see what they had, and it was the same amount that appears on my credit report. Interestingly though, my credit report states that the $7k amount is what I was delinquent on with a balance of $1098, which is in my opinion is the remaining balance of the $3k child support sent me during the beginning of last year. Serenity now!

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:34:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Of course, yes. It's part of the same court order. There's a huge mistake being made somewhere, and it's killing me to get down to where the problem is, because as you all know child support is NEVER wrong. I was getting updates from them when I paid my arreage down like clockwork; 12,000, 8,000, and finally 3,000. After that, all the problems began to happen and the snowball (dungball really) is getting bigger and bigger.

True. Sad. Scary. Unfortunately.

That is pretty much the attitude that most CS agencies take.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:20:20 GMT

Another thing to check is if the amount showing owed is money owed to her by you, or money owed to the state that they gave to her via TANF or FoodStamps and that you have to pay back because of delinquent child support.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 21:47:39 GMT

As far as I know, she's not on stamps and she doesn't have or use their medical card. I provide medical/dental/optical coverage, and they actually have 2x the dental coverage. While unemployed, she had no need for any of that stuff because my family stepped in and provided whatever my kids needed. Tomorrow I just have to put together the paperwork that they've sent to me showing that my balances had gone down, some other stuff showing they were reporting a balance going down ($1895 - $1098) since July/August, and make some calls to the capital to see if I can find some answers.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:50:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Another thing to check is if the amount showing owed is money owed to her by you, or money owed to the state that they gave to her via TANF or FoodStamps and that you have to pay back because of delinquent child support.

It should make no difference.

No matter what type of public assistance the custodial parent may be on, the fact is that the child support order reads X dollars per week and that does not increase / decrease absent court order, which is not determined on benefits received.

Also, child support payments are paid directly to the state in most cases these days on newer child support orders. If the individual is on PA, then the child support collection unit passes on the first $50 (approximately) to the parent and keeps the rest. If no PA is involved, the parent gets the full amount except in those states which charge a processing fee -- usually something like $10 per year.

Now, if one pays the child support directly to the other parent, just about anything can happen.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 05:12:35 GMT

$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use. On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids. I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so. In the end it was for my children. At least that's what I have to tell myself.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:41:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use. On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids. I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so. In the end it was for my children. At least that's what I have to tell myself.

Unfortunately many who pay child support get messed over by paying the other spouse directly. It's sad, really, but better never -- ever -- to pay the other parent directly unless by check ... and even then.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:02:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use. On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids. I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so. In the end it was for my children. At least that's what I have to tell myself.

Another thought--

In your calculations of how much you should still owe vs. what the state says you owe, are you also figuring in the interest that you would have owed, and continue to owe due to the delinquency?

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:44:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use. On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids. I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so. In the end it was for my children. At least that's what I have to tell myself.
Another thought--

In your calculations of how much you should still owe vs. what the state says you owe, are you also figuring in the interest that you would have owed, and continue to owe due to the delinquency?

A lot of states are adding interest now. Generally it is about 10% simple interest.

Re: Another Child Support Issue

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:16:51 GMT

Ok, let me explain the way that I'm looking at it. As of 01/09/2010 I received paperwork from child support that stated I owed $3,379.03, which did not include the interest. Interest in my state is 9% and I'm assuming that it's calculated at a monthly rate because it equals out to $7, 028.38. My Experian credit report states an amount of $7,196.00 past due with a balance of $1,098.00, which is still wrong because child support only applied $51.00 to the arrearage from Sept. to Oct. of last year. Last week when I went to the county clerk's office, their figures were all wrong according to a printout of all my payments. The lady that helped me made a call to another division and they were wrong as well, because they said that I still owed the $7k. I have a monitoring service that I subscribe to that has been reporting the amount down from $1,634, which has been reported by someone in the child support division. I'm losing my mind fighting with these idiots! I'm already overpaying my ex by 12% according to the child support division because two of my children are over 18, and our divorce decree didn't include college.