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Just want to thank everyone at this forum and for all the wealth of information contained within these pages. Being that basically my entire life I had been financially irrresponsible, it's only within the past year and a half that I've began to take control of my life and finally live like a mature adult. This began with getting my free annual CR and seeing exactly how sordid things were.
Well, I did this early last month, and...not to my surprise, all 3 CB's had me with 4 negative accounts.
2 out of these accounts were student loans that had been defaulted within the past 4 years. One through the government (AES), and one through Xpress Loan Servicing (now a defunct company). So I already had high hopes for the Xpress Loan account being deleted due to the fact they wouldn't be able to refute anything. But the rest I held low hopes for, especially since the remainder were collections that had been paid off a year ago (including a huge one from an apartment eviction). Well, received my first email from Equifax today and here were the results:
Equifax findings:
>>> We have researched the collection account. Account # - 48XXXX The results are: This item has been
deleted from the credit file. If you have additional questions about this item please contact: Systematic National Collections (This was the collections for my apartment eviction, possibly the most important outcome for me!)
>>> We have researched the credit account. Account # - 95087xxxxxxx The results are: This item has
been deleted from the credit file. If you have additional questions about this item please contact: Xpress Loan
Servicing/Efr,.... (YESSSSSS!!!! This one probably hurt my score the most as, believe it or not, I had a string of about 10 consecutive 30 days before it finally defaulted)
>>> We have researched the credit account. Account # - 95087xxxxxxx The results are: This item has been deleted from the credit file. If you have
additional questions about this item please contact: Xpress Loan Servicing/Efr (Once again, same company but a separate school loan, huge red marks all across the board now gone )
And lastly, and not to my surprise, the student loans when handled directly by the government:
>>> We have researched the credit account. Account # - 5402***** The results are: Equifax verified that this item belongs to you. Additional information has
been provided from the original source regarding this item. If you have additional questions about this item please contact: Direct Loans
Not too surprising there, and I doubt they will ever agree to remove those off my records, as I've seen a consistent trend on this forum regarding federal student loan creditors. Sigh.
BUT, overall I am EXTREMELY happy with the results and can't wait to see how this will affect my score! A little before this same time last year my fico was at an abismal 520, but as of last month, it was 645. This is before the results of these disputes! I am keeping on top of my finances like a hawk now and making sure to pay on time, every time. I won't stop until I'm 750+!!
Ok, now here's the slight dillemma. I logged into my Experian account today, expecting to see some changes. Well, I no longer saw the apartment complex collections on there, so I'm assuming it was deleted. HOWEVER, I still saw both Xpress Loan student loan accounts on there, with the following message for both:
Status:
Claim filed with government.
Status Details:
This account is scheduled to continue on record until Oct 2015.
This item was updated from our processing of your dispute in Jun 2011.
It makes no sense that I would have lost this dispute since, as previously stated, they are a defunct company???? But Experian does state on their website that disputes take up to 45 days for free credit reports (which this was, and filed only 30 days ago)...so am I to assume that this is not finalized yet? The thing I hate about experian is that they don't send you any confirmation emails or status emails like Equifax did...so I have no idea where the process is at. I even tried checking the status of my previous dispute on their website and it told me the disputes were not found (even though they obviously exist). Anyone have a similar problem with them?
My final step will be to repeat this procedure with transunion, as I did not file my disputes with them at the same time. (DOH, boneheaded of me, I know!). So I'll probably just have to re-order my credit report from them for another 15 or so bucks and get that taken care of. But this is definitely a giant step in the right direction. Thanks again for all the help, guys and gals!
I find it extremely irritating that you are bragging around here about getting accounts gone that you admit were legitimately yours. Big deal - you disputed online and got lucky. No honor in that.
I'm sure that student loan company went out of biz because of people doing the exact same thing you did - not obligating debts. Its one thing to bankrupt because of life disasters, but your excuse is "your entire life of financial irresponsibility."
I'm all for beating this credit scoring game, but the honest and right way.
Well sheesh...wasn't expecting that reply. But I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinions. If it makes you feel any better...I was homeless and living out of my car for about 4 months due to 'financial hardships' which were out of my control. And it's not like these accounts were not already settled and paid off. I paid them...or they had defaulted and I am now paying them through another company. How is this any different than people writing GW letters for making ammends on their previous mistakes?
All good...I guess some of us are more 'perfect' than others.
I owe u a big apology then- I read your post twice and it sound like you just lucked out by deleting legit items.
I'm happy to hear things are turning around for u.
No problemo at all, sir, appreciate the reply
My initial question is, what was the basis for your disputes, and how were they formally resolved?
In any dispute, some inaccuracy in their reporting must be asserted, along with sufficient documentation so as to permit them to conduct a reasonable investigation of the asserted inaccuracy. A dispute lacking such a showing can be dismissed as "frivolous or irrelevant," without the need for any investigation.
Additionally, in any dispute filed with a CRA, they are required to conclude their investigatin within 30 days of its filing, and send a formal Notice of Results of Reinvetigation within 5 days thereafter. Thus, you should have a formal notice from the CRA as to the basis for any deleetion.
If, in reinvestigation of the dispute, the furnisher responded that they were unable to verify the disputed information, the furnisher was required to also report that same result to each CRA to which they had also reported the disputed information. Thus, if the Notice of Results provided that determination, you could contact the furnisher and advise them of their obligation to also report deletion with all other CRAs. You would not have to file a separate dispute with each CRA.
However, if they did verify back to the CRA, but chose to also voluntarily delete, then they would have no obligation to also delete with the other CRAs.
The apparent lack of a formal Notice of Results of Reinvestigation from the CRA on the one dispute leaves in limbo the issue of whether the furnisher has a requirement to also delete with the other CRAs. You appeat to have no official results from the dispute. They have 30 days to conclude their reinvestigation, and five days therafter to mail the Notice of Results. I can take 45 days to hit your mailbox. You will then know how to proceed. Wait a couple of weeks.