Disputes Work Sometimes and Backfire Sometimes

[Iusedtolurk]

*I disputed my Merrick after 5 months of waiting for it to update on Equifax.

2 days after the dispute it updated to the correct Zero balance. Then when the dispute closed 3 weeks later it was updated back to the incorrect balance of 13 dollars it had been showing for 5 months on Equifax. (Hands in the air)

Now a month later after calling Merrick and asking for an update to correct to Zero balance it's still showing incorrect 13 dollar balance. SMH

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**After about 6 months of frustration waiting for Comenity to update I decided to dispute on Nov 17th with Experian. I wanted to see if they updated correctly would Trans and Equifax also update so I didn't dispute with them.

About a week and a half later I changed my mind and decided to dispute at Trans and Equifax also because if they didn't update when Ex updated I didn't want to wait an additional 30 days or so for those disputes to be completed.

Today I got an email from Ex saying my dispute was completed (Approx 3 weeks).

I checked and sure enough went perfect at Experian. Balance updated to Zero and CLI updated. FINALLY!

Now I'm wondering about the outcomes at Trans and Eq.

Will they update in the next few days because of the Ex update?

If they update because of the Ex update will that cause a problem when the ongoing disputes I filed a week and a half later complete?

You never know in the world of Disputing.

I really hate disputing because one time I disputed an account because it was showing open when it had been paid off and closed and when the dispute closed they removed the account. (It was a good account with a perfect history).

[L8pmts]

I hope all goes well for you. Disputing with them backfired on me; Merrick updated with the old Visa account balance before the switch to the MC which had a new number. This dispute triggered Merrick reporting the Visa balance and the current MC balance. I now have 2 Merrick trade lines reporting on TU which makes it appear that I owe Merrick about $2500 instead of the current MC balance of $1K. I've decided to do a balance transfer to another card for 0% for 15 months to pay off the $1K I owe and pray it triggers them to zero out both accounts. Of course calling to Merrick did no good, because the reps could either care less or don't have access to the info that I see on my reports.

[Iusedtolurk]

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@L8pmts wrote:

I hope all goes well for you. Disputing with them backfired on me; Merrick updated with the old Visa account balance before the switch to the MC which had a new number. This dispute triggered Merrick reporting the Visa balance and the current MC balance. I now have 2 Merrick trade lines reporting on TU which makes it appear that I owe Merrick about $2500 instead of the current MC balance of $1K. I've decided to do a balance transfer to another card for 0% for 15 months to pay off the $1K I owe and pray it triggers them to zero out both accounts. Of course calling to Merrick did no good, because the reps could either care less or don't have access to the info that I see on my reports.

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@L8pmts  Well that sucks at least they didn't double whammy me with 2 wrong items. They just updated the new card with the old balance.

In the credit report the last update shows July with NO INFO showing for Aug-Sep-Oct-Nov.

Dec doesn't get an update? until around the 17th so I'll see if it gets corrected.

[L8pmts]

@Iusedtolurk any advice on how to proceed when my BT from Merrick doesn't solve the problem?

[gorgon]

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@Iusedtolurk wrote:

I really hate disputing because one time I disputed an account because it was showing open when it had been paid off and closed and when the dispute closed they removed the account. (It was a good account with a perfect history).

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The same thing happened to me. Then about six months later the account just showed back up with the closed status and zero balance.

[mfinsmi1]

@L8pmts same exact thing happened to me i have 2 merrick reporting only on TU they a mess so glad i closed that card. 

[L8pmts]

@mfinsmi1 Closing Merrick is my immediate goal especially once I can acquire another substantial($5K+) TL to compensate for that cl and my overall utilization. They have served their purpose. 

[hdporter]

CRA disputes are a crap shoot, at best.  Such disputes seem to be handled in a scattershot method that can yield most any result.

If you're serious about wanting to have a CRA report accurate information, enlist the assistance of the creditor involved directly.  Don't engage a "middleman" (which is what the CRA's are, in essence).  They rarely engage in true "investigations"; most times there simply send current tradeline info to the creditor and ask them to confirm or update with changes.

On the other hand, if you're engaging in a CRA dispute in hope of deleting adverse information (perhaps via a creditor who fails to confirm data, requiring removal), you likely are working with your best ally in that task (an fairly unreliable one, at that).

[Jeffster1]

I was able to get my (now closed) Merrick card to correctly report my zero balance on EQ by contacting their Exec Offices. I googled their Executive Team (their email addresses are first [email protected]) and wrote a detailed letter to a number of them. Merrick corrected it quickly, allowing me then to close my account with the correct zero balance. 

[L8pmts]

@Jeffster1 Thank you so much for the information...