GW OR DISPUTE

[Anonymous]

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT EVERYONE.  I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT GW OR DISPUTING. MY SEARS ACCOUNT WAS TURNED OVER TO ACADEMY COLLECTIONS EARLIER THIS YEAR. I HAVE SINCE PAID THEM A SETTLEMENT AND I HAVE  SENT A GW LETTER FOR DELETION, MY PROBLEM IS THAT THE SEARS ENTRY STILLS HAS A BALANCE OF 881.00 EVEN THOUGH IT WAS CHARGED OFF. I THOUGHT THAT THE BALANCE ON THE SEARS ENTRY SHOULD READ ZERO. THIS IS REALLY HURTING MY UTIL.  SHOULD I NOW GW SEARS FOR DELETION OR SHOULD I DISPUTE WITH THE CRA.  I WONT DO ANYTHING UNTIL I GET SOME FEED BACK.   MY NEXTUESTION INVOLVES VS AND NYC CREDIT CARDS DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES THEM TO RETURN YOUR CREDIT LIMIT TO ITS FORMER AMOUNT AFTER A 30 DAY LATE.  THEY WONT REMOVE IT NO MATTER WHAT, AND THEY TOOK AWAY MY ENTIRE CREDIT LIMIT.THE LATE OCCURED 7 MONTHS AGO AND I HAVE CALLED  AND NO ONE WILL GIVE ME A STRAIGHT AANSWER.  I ONLY OWE 95.00 ON VS AND 178.00 ON NYC.  MY ORIGINAL CREDIT LIMIT WAS 500 ON BOTH. IF SEARS REMOVES IT ENTRY AND I PAY OFF THESE TWO CARDS NEXT MONTH MY UTIL WILL BE ZERO PERCENT WHICH WILL REALLY IMPROVE MY SCORES AS THESE ARE THE ONLY CC THAT I HAVE EXCEPT FOR A NEW TARGET RED CARD.  THANKS AGAIN EVERY ONE.

[ccaddict]

Hi helpless,

Although I don't have anything much to offer you in terms of advice regarding the gw or dispute... I will say this, typing in CAPS makes it real hard to read your post.

Or maybe its just me haha.

Good luck!

[SmartCookie]

hi helpless,

yes please don't type in all caps in 1 big paragraph.  It makes it hard to read what the issue is so that we can help you best.

I would dispute Sears as 'not mine' because you do not owe them that balance, you paid it to the CA (which you are GWing). Hopefully it will delete, if it only updates correctly... then GW Sears.   In the future, always try to pay to the OC and not the CA that is trying to collect for them if the debt has not been sold.  I don't know if you checked that first.

I don't know anything about NYC credit cards but if a company brought your available balance to $0, that typically indicates they have closed your card and do not necessarily intend to re-open it for any limit.  Judging by the difficulty dealing with them now, I would assume the worst and consider a PFD offer.  I am unclear on the problems with each card ... did they bring both to $0 CL for a late on 1 card? 

Take good care of that Target card and make paying that on time your priority.  Once you have these other 3 situations (4 really with the GW to the CA) fixed, you should be trying to get the best card your scores will allow for the duration.

[fishbjc]

If it's CLOSED, that should be reflected in the cr.  Have you looked at your cr lately?  If CLOSED, it usually says CLOSED BY CREDIT GRANTOR.

[My_dog_FICO]

Helpless - you are anything but that with your friends here at myfico.

If you have an entry on your credit report that is showing incorrect information, such as a balance due, then you should send a dispute to the credit reporting agency. Although Sears does have the legal right to report that you had an account with them, and they can display the payment history, they are required to report the correct balance.

If you just recently paid the CA, give them some time to notify Sears and for Sears to notify the CRAs. If you dispute with the CRAs too soon, Sears probably will validate and you'll have more paperwork to complete.

If you really get stuck with this one, contact Sears with your Paid In Full receipt from the CA. You'll probably need to fax it to them once you talk to a rep. From that point, Sears 'should' get confirmation from the CA and then send a letter to the CRAs (cc'ing you) to have the balance updated.

An alternative would be to write a GoodWill letter to Sears and include the PIF statement from the CA. If you get the right person at Sears, they may be nice enough to just delete the entry completely. Especially if you point out they've been misreporting the balance for several months. (each time could be considered a violation of the FCRA)

[Anonymous]

sorry about the caps, it wont happen again.  my nyc and vs accounts are still open.  i never had a late payment before the one in april in the five years that ive had the accounts.  my late payment was for 10 dollars on both and resulted because i always had my payment taken out of my checking account and mistakenly thought that i had one more month before the before the arrangment had to be renewed. when i called to renew the automatic withdrawl with vs and nyc they told me that i was 30 days late i immediately paid the 10 dollars and made arrangements to have the withdraws reset.  i have always paid atleast 3-4x the minimum payment due and before they took away my credit limit i was never above 30% util on either account.  i will dispute the sears account and hope that they will delete it or atleast change it to the correct balance so that it wont figure into my util.  should i send a copy of my credit report with the ca remarks athat prove thaat i paid the account.i paid the ca in august so they have had plenty of time to notify sears about the account status. 

ficos 12/8/07 eq 521, tv563, ex559

thanks again for all the help i will post again when i get some results