Fingerhut falsely reporting 30 days late and have proof otherwise

[mja1970]

My blood is boiling.  I have an account with Fingerhut that I opened a year ago that is currently 74% paid off.  I have my account set up on auto pay, so the payments are automatically debited from my checking account on the 9th of each month.  I have also been making additional payments to help pay it off faster.  I was looking at my credit report this morning and saw that my Experian FICO 8 score had suddenly dropped nearly 30 points.  I couldn't imagine why as I have not had any missed or late payments or collections, so I started scrolling through my accounts and saw that Fingerhut reported me as 30 days late in March.  I was NOT late.  I immediately logged into my Fingerhut account and saw that my auto pay went through right on time and posted to my account with the confirmation number and the status says "paid."  Additionally, I made TWO EXTRA payments on my account in March because I am trying to pay it off sooner rather than later.  My auto payment went through on March 9th for my minimum payment of $38.99.  Then, I made two additional payments, one on 3/11 and one on 3/16, making my total payments for March $179.95, FAR more than my $38.99 minimum.  I also have proof that these payments cleared my bank account and were not late.   Also, my April payment went through today, so I am current for this month as well.

I contacted Fingerhut first by email and provided screenshots of my payment history, a screenshot of the late payment they are reporting on my credit report, and screenshots of the payments from my credit union showing that they cleared my account and the dates that they cleared.  Fingerhut is being EXTREMELY ignorant and uncooperative and keeps sending me the same canned response over and over saying, "Please be aware that we do not grant goodwill or exception requests to remove negative remarks. We are required by law to reporting accurately to all credit bureaus. You may mail us a direct dispute in writing to 6250 Ridgewood Road, St. Cloud, MN 56303. You may also address your dispute directly with Experian at www.experian.com, Equifax at www.equifax.com or Trans Union at www.transunion.com. "  

OMG, I never even ASKED for a "goodwill."  Their reporting is blatantly WRONG and I am demanding that they correct it!  They refuse to help me or even acknowledge the proof I sent them that my payment was not late.  Then, I tried calling them, (Mod cut - not here, please @mja1970 -- myFICO Forums TOS and Forum Etiquette Guidelines) and who insisted that their reporting was correct, despite the solid proof I have that they are wrong and that I have NEVER had one single late or missed payment.   I was looking right at my payment history while I was on the phone with her and read her the dates of the payments, the amounts, and the confirmation numbers, but she refused to do anything.  I then demanded a supervisor, (Mod cut - ditto here as well @mja1970) who was also entirely useless and said the same thing, that their reporting was correct.  She even kept laughing at me when I got angry and raised my voice.

I Googled the CEO of Fingerhut and was able to find his email address, so I tried sending him an email, but it bounced back to me saying access denied.  Does anyone have any other contact information for the CEO or anyone who will actually help me with this?  I suppose I could report them to the Attorney General's office in my state as well as the Better Business Bureau, but I need my credit reports corrected immediately because my wife and I are literally in the process of purchasing a new home and dealing with mortgage stuff.  I cannot file any disputes with the bueraus because we are getting a USDA loan and their underwriting system can't process or approve your loan if you have any disputes on your credit file.  

[gdale6]

Send the letter to the CEO through the mail to the HQ address for Fingerhut along with copies of your records indicating that it was not late. If after a reasonable period of time its not fixed then a complaint to the CFPB would be in order.

[GApeachy]

If you can provide ALL of the info. to prove your point to a local Consumer Attorney they can hit them hard and with a quickness.  Probably quicker than any other route...there are fines, fees, etc that the attorney can threaten them with that will get a response post haste! 

[mja1970]

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@GApeachy wrote:

If you can provide ALL of the info. to prove your point to a local Consumer Attorney they can hit them hard and with a quickness.  Probably quicker than any other route...there are fines, fees, etc that the attorney can threaten them with that will get a response post haste! 

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While I would love to do this, an attorney would be fairly expensive, and with us about to purchase a home and having to pay the costs associated with that (earnest money, appraisal, inspection, closing costs, moving costs, etc.), that's not really an option right now.  I have sent an email to the consumer credit protection bureau that is part of our state's AG's office in hopes that they can help since they don't charge anything for their assistance.

[GApeachy]

Actually I had to go this route one time.  I called a local Consumer Attorney who did not charge me one dollar.  I told him to take it ALL. Guess what, he did and it was gone from my reports in a matter of a few days....never to return.  Discuss that with them..if you have a leg to stand on and the attorney sees fit...it can happen.

[SDMarik]

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@mja1970 wrote:

I cannot file any disputes with the bueraus because we are getting a USDA loan and their underwriting system can't process or approve your loan if you have any disputes on your credit file.  

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First thing I would do is get everything ready to send to the loan underwriter if they ask for explanation of this, which they likely will as a late payment and drop in score during underwriting would be cause for concern. 

if everything you say is accurate, this should be a pretty straightforward dispute once you're out of underwriting and clear to close on your USDA loan. Just upload all of you documentation along with the dispute the first time, and this should go away.

Maybe hit em with a CFPB case as well, for good measure (you can probably do that now)

Good luck!

[RobynJ]

@mja1970 

Are you sure that you can't have any disputes on your record that are settled? I would understand if it was an open dispute but I believe you're allowed to have a close the dispute and that should only take a maximum of 30 days. As long as you're not going to closing within the next 30 days you should be able to dispute this and have it off your record. I think the term that you're thinking of is an open dispute and not a closed one. If you do end up disputing it make sure you send all the documentation over with this as soon as you start it and they only have 30 days to either prove you wrong or The CRA will delete it automatically

[RobynJ]

@mja1970 

I also wanted to ask, did you purchase anything recently from them? The reason I ask is I read a few posts about how they switched banks that control their CC. I would wonder if maybe you are paying on the old account for the previous purchases and the new purchase is under the new CC as they said the old account would stay active until PIF but all new purchases would be under the new account they automatically assigned to your account. If so I would make sure payments get in asap before they go 60 days late. If so that is wrong by them in so many ways but still legal unfortunately.