Bad experience with Kohls credit - Trying to fix credit report

[jg1983]

Okay here's the story. I got a Kohls credit card back in February. I made an in store purchase of about $50 on the account while applying for the credit. After that I didn't receive a single piece of mail from them. Not a single bill. Not even the credit card. I will admit part of the issue I am facing is my fault. I got married in February and had a lot going on in my life and a lot of bills coming up so I forgot about the purchase. It didn't help matters that I never received a bill from Kohls. Back around May I noticed an entry from Kohls on my credit report for being 120 (I think) days late and owing around $200 including late fees.

I called Kohls right away and explained the situation. The rep told me they would settle the account if I paid the principal amount due and they would waive the late fees. She also told me she would send my case to another department which would decide what to do about my credit report. We agreed I would make the payment after I got an answer about my credit in the mail. I waited about a month and got nothing in the mail from Kohls.

Soon after that I got a letter from a collection agency. So I called Kohls immediately. They claimed they sent me a letter saying my request to have the information removed from my credit was denied because they never received any returned mail. They claimed they sent it to collections because they hadn't heard from me a couple weeks after informing me of that. They told me the only way to stop it from going to collections is pay them $150 immediately to settle the account when I had a previous agreement with them of $50. I was upset and asked for a supervisor who also refused to honor the previous agreement. So I asked for his supervisor who I argued with for about a half hour then he finally agreed to review recordings of previous calls. A couple weeks later I got a call from Kohls telling me they would honor the previous agreement of $50 and stop all collections activity. I immediately made the payment and was informed my credit would be changed to reflect the payment and the agreement.

Over the following weeks I watched my credit report and nothing changed. I called once or twice a week and was told to wait 30 days and it would change. I was also told all collection activities had been stopped.

Last Friday was the 30 day mark and still nothing had changed. So I called Kohls. The rep told me the change would not happen automatically and I had to write a letter to another department requesting the change and he said they could deny my request. They were even unwilling to report the payment I made or report the account as settled. I talked to a supervisor who told me the same thing and starting being very rude to me and basically bragging that it would affect my credit for 7 years. Very unprofessional.

At this point I am done dealing with Kohls and exploring other options. I am thinking about disputing this with the credit reporting agencies. Is this a good idea? If I do how should I word my dispute? I had success doing this with an old cell phone bill that I didn't agree with the amount I owed. The entry was removed within a week but that was a different situation. Is there another option here? Should I keep going back and forth with Kohls until they honor their agreement? Aren't they legally required to at least report that I made a payment? Can I take legal action against them? This is the only major negative thing I have left on my credit and I want to get it resolved so I can refinance my car and maybe buy a house in the next few years.

[Anonymous]

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@jg1983 wrote:

Okay here's the story. I got a Kohls credit card back in February. I made an in store purchase of about $50 on the account while applying for the credit. After that I didn't receive a single piece of mail from them. Not a single bill. Not even the credit card. I will admit part of the issue I am facing is my fault. I got married in February and had a lot going on in my life and a lot of bills coming up so I forgot about the purchase. It didn't help matters that I never received a bill from Kohls. Back around May I noticed an entry from Kohls on my credit report for being 120 (I think) days late and owing around $200 including late fees.

I called Kohls right away and explained the situation. The rep told me they would settle the account if I paid the principal amount due and they would waive the late fees. She also told me she would send my case to another department which would decide what to do about my credit report. We agreed I would make the payment after I got an answer about my credit in the mail. I waited about a month and got nothing in the mail from Kohls.

Soon after that I got a letter from a collection agency. So I called Kohls immediately. They claimed they sent me a letter saying my request to have the information removed from my credit was denied because they never received any returned mail. They claimed they sent it to collections because they hadn't heard from me a couple weeks after informing me of that. They told me the only way to stop it from going to collections is pay them $150 immediately to settle the account when I had a previous agreement with them of $50. I was upset and asked for a supervisor who also refused to honor the previous agreement. So I asked for his supervisor who I argued with for about a half hour then he finally agreed to review recordings of previous calls. A couple weeks later I got a call from Kohls telling me they would honor the previous agreement of $50 and stop all collections activity. I immediately made the payment and was informed my credit would be changed to reflect the payment and the agreement.

Over the following weeks I watched my credit report and nothing changed. I called once or twice a week and was told to wait 30 days and it would change. I was also told all collection activities had been stopped.

Last Friday was the 30 day mark and still nothing had changed. So I called Kohls. The rep told me the change would not happen automatically and I had to write a letter to another department requesting the change and he said they could deny my request. They were even unwilling to report the payment I made or report the account as settled. I talked to a supervisor who told me the same thing and starting being very rude to me and basically bragging that it would affect my credit for 7 years. Very unprofessional.

At this point I am done dealing with Kohls and exploring other options. I am thinking about disputing this with the credit reporting agencies. Is this a good idea? If I do how should I word my dispute? I had success doing this with an old cell phone bill that I didn't agree with the amount I owed. The entry was removed within a week but that was a different situation. Is there another option here? Should I keep going back and forth with Kohls until they honor their agreement? Aren't they legally required to at least report that I made a payment? Can I take legal action against them? This is the only major negative thing I have left on my credit and I want to get it resolved so I can refinance my car and maybe buy a house in the next few years.

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Disputing will likely get you nowhere. You could take legal action for failing to abide by their agreement, and for failing to update to reflect your payment. 

[RaiseMyScoreASAP]

The Kohl's card is issued by Capital One and I am not a Capital One fan. I have the card because I like shopping there and enjoy the savings with the card. However, they started me out at $300 three years ago and finally increased it to $700 but won't go any higher despite my having a good FICO score, perfect payment history and using the card. The $700 limit is my lowest on any card. I just think it hurts me when that limit is out there. My Belk card was opened at the same time as the Kohl's and its limit has grown from $500 to $4,600 in the same amount of time without having to ask for a CLI. I don't want to have to worry about UT--so I really now have limited use for the Kohl's card. It's really easy to get high UTs with those low limit cards. 

[jason0618]

Not to be negative, but you opened the account and knowingly used it. Did you think they just forgot about that $50? I'm sure it's in their fine print that they are not responsible for late or lost mail, and that you are responsible for making payment regardless. A 30 day late I could understand as maybe not knowing when it would be due, but by the time they report 120 day late and charge it off, i wouldn't expect a whole lot of leniency from them. Especially when you refuse to pay it unless they remove the negatives and all associated fees.
That said, i filed a ch7 Bk and included my kohls account, which was never paid late. They not only approved me the day after discharge for a new account, but they GW my old IIB account that was discharged with a balance.

[Anonymous]

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@jason0618 wrote:
Not to be negative, but you opened the account and knowingly used it. Did you think they just forgot about that $50? I'm sure it's in their fine print that they are not responsible for late or lost mail, and that you are responsible for making payment regardless. A 30 day late I could understand as maybe not knowing when it would be due, but by the time they report 120 day late and charge it off, i wouldn't expect a whole lot of leniency from them. Especially when you refuse to pay it unless they remove the negatives and all associated fees.
That said, i filed a ch7 Bk and included my kohls account, which was never paid late. They not only approved me the day after discharge for a new account, but they GW my old IIB account that was discharged with a balance.

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I think the OP's complaint is not their initial reporting the account late but rather their failure to abide by their agreement to settle the account when OP called in to take care of it. Its a very valid complaint. If the CS Rep tells you they will agree to conditions of a settlement, then that agreement is legally binding.

[jg1983]

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@jason0618 wrote:
Not to be negative, but you opened the account and knowingly used it. Did you think they just forgot about that $50? I'm sure it's in their fine print that they are not responsible for late or lost mail, and that you are responsible for making payment regardless. A 30 day late I could understand as maybe not knowing when it would be due, but by the time they report 120 day late and charge it off, i wouldn't expect a whole lot of leniency from them. Especially when you refuse to pay it unless they remove the negatives and all associated fees.
That said, i filed a ch7 Bk and included my kohls account, which was never paid late. They not only approved me the day after discharge for a new account, but they GW my old IIB account that was discharged with a balance.

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I expected that even though I admitted my fault someone would try to lecture me about how bad I am. First of all it was not yet charged off when I caught it. Secondly I did not demand anything. When I called I offered to pay all the fees but ASKED them if they could do something about my credit. They then made the offer to settle the account for the principal only. They made the offer. I didn't ask for it. They did not make good on their offer without a huge hassle and still won't report the account as settled or that I even paid anything on it. Even though they told me they would make those changes.

[jason0618]

Hey, I'm not lecturing you on how bad you are. I've got a two month old bankruotcy. I've got absolutely no room to lecture anybody.
My issue is that you called and they offered the settlement, which you agreed to accept, but then didn't make the payment immediately. If I were that close to being charged off, I would have just paid the settlement balance and followed up on the agreement. You can take it how you want, but it wasn't intended to lecture you.