I'm just about 60 days past my discharge, so I've been keeping a sharp eye on my reports to make sure that everything is being updated correctly. One thing I've noticed is that all of the accounts that were IIB are showing "Chapter 7 bankruptcy" and "Bankruptcy discharged" in the remarks field on both Experian and Equifax with the account status marked as "Closed", but on TransUnion, the remarks field only shows "Chapter 7 bankruptcy" and the account status is marked as "Derogatory". I can't imagine that every IIB creditor reported incorrectly to TU, so I was wondering if this is just how TU commonly displays IIB accounts that were discharged, or if this is a problem that I need to open a bunch of disputes about. I should note that the BK itself is marked as "Discharged" in the public records section of the report.
Any debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy can only show “0 balance-discharged in bankruptcy.” If anything else appears on that particular trade line, especially if it is derogatory information, then that violates the requirements of the FCRA. If there is erroneous information in the trade line for a debt that was discharged in bankruptcy, you will then want to prepare a dispute letter directly to the credit reporting agency that has the wrong information. DO NOT submit the dispute online! It is critical that you do the dispute in writing and that you mail it in with copies and highlight the errors. Send it certified too.
Thank you for the excellent advice! I think I'll spend some time this weekend preparing that dispute letter, and I'll get it sent out first thing next week.
Shannon and OP:
Any derogs before the file date stay. Lates, CO's ect. If anything after the file date can not be listed in any way shape or form as a negative towards the account/s. You want to get your annual credit reports which is the most accurate. More than any credit website. Go over them in detail. Anything after file date has to be deleted by the CRA's. But remember to contact the OC first before the CRA's. If they reported to the CRA's wrong info. Then your lawyer can go after them for violating the BK laws and be fined $1000 in your favor plus court cost. Good Luck!
This morning I pulled my TU report from the annualcreditreport site in preparation for sending off this bundle of disputes. I also figured it might make sense to call in to speak with a TU rep and see if *maybe* it's just a clerical issue that could be handled quickly without going through the whole rigamarole of disputing a whole bunch of individual accounts for updated remarks fields. So I rang them up and told the rep of my situation, and before I knew it, she had me list off each of the accounts in question so that she could submit the dispute bundle from her end. Not exactly how I had wanted that to go down, since I would have preferred the hard-copy route! But it's done, so now I'll just wait 30 days and see if this effort bears fruit or if I'll have to end up submitting a dispute-by-mail after all.