HELP! closed account reporting late?

[Anonymous]

Ok, so one of my rebuilder cards that I've outgrown, Credit One, charged me an annual fee back in December. I called and asked for the annual fee to be waived; the refused, I closed the account. A couple weeks later, I receive another statement that showed that not only did I owe on the annual fee, I was charged a late fee. I called again, they apolgized, said it was an error and said I had a $0 balance and the account was closed. Then, a week later, the collection calls start. EACH time, "oh, I'm sorry. I see the mistake and will take care of the problem." The calls have since stopped, but low an behold, today get a notice from MYFICO and check, and they're now reporting me as "past due 30 days, Credit line closed-consumer request-reported by subscriber". My score dropped over 50 points!!!! I know I need to start the dispute process, but... this is complete BS, right? Is this a violation of FDCPA, or the Texas Finance Code? Do I have grounds to file suit?

Grrrr.....

[Walt_K]

I don't think you need to be worried about filing a lawsuit just yet.  You will probably be able to take care of this by filing a dispute either with the CRA or a direct dispute.  I can't remember the procedures/benefits for direct dispute process.  Go over to the rebuilding forum and search for posts by RobertEG and "direct dispute." 

ETA:  By the way, once the 30 day late is removed, your score should go right back to normal, all else being equal.

[Anonymous]

I realize that probably sounds overly aggressive, but if they are directly in violation they need to be help accountable. "Ooops, we're sorry. We'll remove the error." is not acceptable. As consumers, the only way for *us* as a community to even attempt to fight back against these types of practices is to fight back with something that actually hurts them BACK.

Sorry, just... SO freakin' MAD right now. Totally clean, perfect history for three years and now this!!! 

[Walt_K]

Do you have any damages?  I know you're mad right now, but what you want is to get the information corrected.  Getting that done through the dispute process is much more efficient.

[Anonymous]

I suppose you mean other than slamming my Dr. Pepper down and spilling it on my shirt?  No, no damages that I know of. I didn't think you had to have damages to file suit though. A violation is a violation, whether it causes damages or not, right? I mean... I don't get out of speeding tickets just cause I didn't run over anyone.

[Walt_K]

There are violations that carry statutory damages, meaning you don't need to prove you were harmed to collect money.  I have no idea what the statutory damages are, but I think it usually involves things like a CA harrassing you, as opposed to a lender making a mistake.

If they refuse to correct the info, you can certainly file suit to get a court order to force them to correct it.  And you may even be able to file suit in the first instance, but if the only remedy the court can offer is to order them to correct the info, why would you go through that when you can do the same thing with a letter.