EE With Experian - Two Questions

[Anonymous]

My one and only derog - a paid collection - is almost at the point where I think about early exclusion. Since I like to plan ahead:

1- I understand that Experian entertains EE requests when the derog has 3 months or less to go before falling off. But people here say that there are two months 'baked in' so it's not really 3 months. If you're familiar with that term, what does 'baked in' mean?

2- EE may be academic as far as Experian is concerned, because when I've called them recently the only choice on their phone menu is to file a dispute, and there's no way that I can find to actually talk to someone. Is it just me, or is this how Experian is working now?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My one and only derog - a paid collection - is almost at the point where I think about early exclusion. Since I like to plan ahead:

1- I understand that Experian entertains EE requests when the derog has 3 months or less to go before falling off. But people here say that there are two months 'baked in' so it's not really 3 months. If you're familiar with that term, what does 'baked in' mean?

What that means is if you look on your reports at the date they say it'll fall off, that's two months ahead of the seven year timeframe. You can call one month ahead of that for EE. If you look at the DoFD on the report, and fast forward seven years, that's the natural dropoff date. It will be two months later than the date EX lists as when it'll fall off. That's the baked-in two months.

2- EE may be academic as far as Experian is concerned, because when I've called them recently the only choice on their phone menu is to file a dispute, and there's no way that I can find to actually talk to someone. Is it just me, or is this how Experian is working now?

I can't answer this for certain as I haven't called them in the past year or so, but someone likely will have recent experience to comment on.

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My one and only derog - a paid collection - is almost at the point where I think about early exclusion. Since I like to plan ahead:

1- I understand that Experian entertains EE requests when the derog has 3 months or less to go before falling off. But people here say that there are two months 'baked in' so it's not really 3 months. If you're familiar with that term, what does 'baked in' mean?

2- EE may be academic as far as Experian is concerned, because when I've called them recently the only choice on their phone menu is to file a dispute, and there's no way that I can find to actually talk to someone. Is it just me, or is this how Experian is working now?

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1. It really is 3 months. They already "bake in" (generously give it to you,  ut confuse by including it in that date) so when you request the extra month (3rd month early), you can only do so 1 month prior to that "on record until" date. That is exactly 3 months EE. It just doesnt feel like 3 months EE, psychologically, when 2 months of it is already given in writing and you are not requesting 3 months.

2. The "on record until' date is not 7 years from your DoFD, which is why it confuses so many people because of the included 2 months EE "built in" (better than "baked in"?) to that date. So sometime people think EX or both TU and EQ have their DoFD wrong or try to request 3 months EE from the "on record until" date.

3. Yes it has always been through the dispute department. Just be certain to tell them you are not disputing the accuracy of the account, but kindly requesting EE. They will still run it as a dispute, but a little different.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for both of your replies.

About calling Experian: Apologies, because I got something wrong. When I call Experian now, the only menu option is for credit freezes and fraud alerts. (I previously said it was for initiating a dispute.) There's no option for anything else or to speak to a person. So I don't know how I would ask about an early exclusion - or anything else, for that matter. The number I'm calling is 866-617-1894.

The only other way Experian provides to contact them (that I've been able to find) is via USPS, and that only applies for initiating disputes. And that's the only thing they'll do if you ask a question about an item on your report, regardless of whether or not you asked to file a dispute.