Excuse the long post but want to share all the facts. Along with my own credit rebuild, gave attention to few derogs on DW's profile.
We cleared couple of collections and three COs...Kohls, USAA, and Cap1 CC accounts.
All went well with that last year (2019), giving time for each to update which they all did except the Cap1 CC account. We are in Texas so Cap1 uses Moss Law in this state which had sought and got a judgement against her.
Cap1 owned the debt, they just use Moss Law to collect.
The account balance was $1927. We were able to obtain a settlement amount of $1250. This was paid and acknowledged as received Dec 12 2019.
The account updated across all CRAs late December with the payment made and a $677 remaining balance. Fine, expected that, takes another cycle to update to 0 balance.
She received acknowledgement letter from Moss Law regarding the payment in December 2019 and a second notice that the lien/judgement had been removed but never did receive an acknowledgement letter from Cap1. ( I know the expected communications because I had an account in the same boat, handled by Moss Law, but I had received acknowledgement letters from both Moss and Cap1 so I was suprised that she never received same.)
January 2020, the account balance strangely is updated to $696 and has remained that way every since, updating every month as balance past due. Latest report is July 2020 still showing the same 696.
April 3 2020, sent a certified letter to Cap1 (receipt indicates it was received April 6), with copies of Moss Law documents regarding the settlement, requesting that the balance be updated to 0 and monthly reporting be updated correctly for January 2020 forward. COVID-19 is going on so we remained patient.
June 2020, same past due 696 continues to be reported. We filed a dispute with each CRA, providing the Moss Law documentation that indicates the account was settled. All CRAs completed the dispute with information verified, Experian was the quickest which I found suprising as we submitted it online Saturday and by Monday it was verified as accurate.
This month on July 13 , we have sent a second certified letter to both Cap1 and Moss Law regarding the situation, including the previous documentation, copies of certified letter receipts, with the same request, that proper update transactions be provided to TU, EX, EQ to reflect a 0 balance for the account and that the negative past due reporting for the months of Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, and now July be removed.
We have yet to receive any acknowledgement from either Moss Law or Capital One regarding the matter.
I had a problem with my Cap1 CO updating to 0 balance but I solved that with a single certified letter to Cap1 albeit several months after it should have been updated without my extra effort.
If she does not receive the corrective updates requested with this second round of certified letters, what is the recommendation for next step(s) to take?
Not entirely well versed on this, but I'd say next steps would be to contact the CFPB and BBB and file complaints with both, providing all of this same documentation and explaining you've given ample time for the reports to be updated. Also perhaps try calling a backdoor capital one number to try and reach someone in the executive office? Don't have a number for you unfortunately, but I believe there is/was a thread here on MF somewhere for backdoor numbers. Just do a search on here.
Contact the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Contact a consumer protection attorney about possibly suing for violation of the FCRA.
@Anonymous wrote:Did you do online disputes or handwritten certified mail return receipt requested? With CRAs?
We did online dispute with each individual CRA.
EX responded the quickest with online result of the dispute.
EQ responded equally online.
TransUnion indicated the matter required manual review and would respond via letter. About 10 days later said letter arrived indicating the matter was resolved and the debt verified as correct.
At the suggestion of membership here, I searched for different "back door" numbers for Capital One and today we called someone in "Senior Escalation" (or at least thats what the description was for the number we chose) 800-707-0489.
DW spoke to representative and explained the history and the current state of affairs. The CSR assured that the account was closed, settled, and no further amount was owed.
She indicated that DW would receive a confirmation letter from Cap1 confirming that information and they would also take action with each CRA to confirm that the account should be marked with 0 balance and the derogatory past due reports for Jan to July should be removed.
She indicated we should see the results of that within 30 days. DW captured the name of the representative we spoke to and will see if Cap1 actually follows through on the statements made and the appropriate action items.
If not, next step will be to file a complaint with the CFPB and go from there.
As always, member feedback and suggestions are appreciated.
I guess sometimes it pays to make a phone call rather than write a letter....
Cap1 has done exactly as asked and updated all CRAs with the fact that the account is settled in December 2019 so now showing a 0 balance and the Negative reports for January till July 2020 have been removed.
Here score boost was between 16 and 24 points across each CRA.
EX and TU went as far as to remove ALL the negative months dating back to the last 120 day 2014. Equifax just removed the Jan to July months of 2020 (which is correct).
EX: 709
TU: 705
EQ: 679
At least now all her baddies are taken care of to the degree they can be. They will drop off entirely in 2021 leaving her with nothing but 100% excellent payment history.
Onward!
@satio wrote:I guess sometimes it pays to make a phone call rather than write a letter....
Cap1 has done exactly as asked and updated all CRAs with the fact that the account is settled in December 2019 so now showing a 0 balance and the Negative reports for January till July 2020 have been removed.
Here score boost was between 16 and 24 points across each CRA.
EX and TU went as far as to remove ALL the negative months dating back to the last 120 day 2014. Equifax just removed the Jan to July months of 2020 (which is correct).
EX: 709
TU: 705
EQ: 679
At least now all her baddies are taken care of to the degree they can be. They will drop off entirely in 2021 leaving her with nothing but 100% excellent payment history.
Onward!
Awesome! Glad my suggestion helped achieved the desired outcome! 
I'm still years away from being delinquency-free, I'm afraid. 