Experian Advising to Break Its Own Rules?

[Anonymous]

Just noticed on my USAA CMS (provided by Experian) that on the "Negative Information" tab it reports no items (yay!) but there is this little gem listed at the bottom:

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Less is better, if possible try to make arrangements with creditors to remove the information – otherwise, most Negative Information will stay on your account for up to 7 years. Even if it isn’t removed, the longer an entry is on your account, the less likely it is to hurt you.

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This would imply the Experian is advocating PFD and GW deletions...which are supposed to technically be against the CRA agreements.

[Anonymous]

Interesting... why do you say that is technically against the CRA agreements?  Do creditors sign an agreement with CRA's that obligates them to never change what is reported, or never delete an account?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Interesting... why do you say that is technically against the CRA agreements?  Do creditors sign an agreement with CRA's that obligates them to never change what is reported, or never delete an account?

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They are not allowed to remove factually correct information. Once they report it, the only reason something should ever be removed is if it is erroneous or the accuracy can't be verified.

[LS2982]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Interesting... why do you say that is technically against the CRA agreements?  Do creditors sign an agreement with CRA's that obligates them to never change what is reported, or never delete an account?

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+1

Its not against it AFAIK.

[Anonymous]

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@LS2982 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Interesting... why do you say that is technically against the CRA agreements?  Do creditors sign an agreement with CRA's that obligates them to never change what is reported, or never delete an account?

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+1

Its not against it AFAIK.

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exactly.  Pretty sure we aren't privvy to the contract documents that creditors sign, but I wouldn't for a second believe that they are obligated in any way to report information if they don't want to.  The only binding clause legally (protected by law, regardless of the contract wording) is that they cannot knowingly report INCORRECT information.  This does not in any way require them to agree to never remove negative information (accurate or not) or continue to report any account.

At any time, any creditor can choose to no longer report an entire account, or a portion of account information, including credit limit, payment history, balance, etc. (i.e. capitol one chose not to report credit limits for a long time, many of my credit unions only report to one or two CRA's, NPSL or flex spending cards may or may not report a credit limit, or a creditor can choose to no longer report that you were 30 days late 5 years ago... it's completely up to them, so long as what they DO choose to report is accurate).

[Anonymous]

You're right...they are not obligated to report anything. However, should they choose to, they CANNOT remove it unless an error has been made.

[tcbofade]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You're right...they are not obligated to report anything. However, should they choose to, they CANNOT remove it unless an error has been made.

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...or any given piece of the information changes.

When you dispute with the CRA an account because of some incorrect information listed, it falls on the creditor to verify EVERY piece of information listed...if they can't, or don't respond in time, the entire listing can (and should) be removed from your CR.

Ask me how I know this... 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are stating that as a fact so if that is true, I apologize for not being familiar... any reference or anything?  I'd be curious about new rules or laws about that... would be interesting to say the least!

Thanks :-)

[Anonymous]

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@tcbofade wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

You're right...they are not obligated to report anything. However, should they choose to, they CANNOT remove it unless an error has been made.

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...or any given piece of the information changes.

When you dispute with the CRA an account because of some incorrect information listed, it falls on the creditor to verify EVERY piece of information listed...if they can't, or don't respond in time, the entire listing can (and should) be removed from your CR.

Ask me how I know this... 

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Like I said, if they can't verify, they have to delete. However, changing information is not grounds for deletion. Creditors are obligated to update the information should it change, but they are not supposed to delete it.

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Interesting... why do you say that is technically against the CRA agreements?  Do creditors sign an agreement with CRA's that obligates them to never change what is reported, or never delete an account?

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Another part of the agreement between Creditors and the CRAs explictly forbids deleting previously reported information in exchange for payment.   This is one of the main reasons that most CAs/Creditors don't agree to PFDs.