First Premier Charge Off

[Anonymous]

So I have these two black marks on my credit report from First Premier. The black marks are charge-off. I woud like opinions 

The two charge-offs happned about 5 years ago. 

So here is how it happened. I was doing good with First Premier making payments on time. They offered me a second account and I opened it, which was a big mistake. So as life gets around you, I was late making a payment, becuase quite simply I forgot to login and make the payment. Two days after the payment was supposed to be be made I logged in and First Premeir had blocked both accounts from having online access. If I wanted to mail a payment, I could but could not make an online payment because I was a day late. I thought this was absured and felt the end goal was to make you even more late. So I filed a compalint with the Federal Banking Commision and the Feceral Consumer Protection Bearu. 

The Federal Banking Commision ruled that banks did not have to provide onlien accesss to make payments. First Premier tried to offer a discount to settle both accounts after charging hundreds of dollars in fees. I basically blew them off becuase I was willing to make an online payment and felt what they were trying to do was charge more fees. 

So fast forward to five years later......Its a black mark on my credit file. I know it will disappear in 2 more years. However it shows as a serious delinquency in one credit file, Equifax. I have credit cards and have a decent credit score. I have some credit lines as high as 14k with BofA. I have cards with Chase(2) Citi(2), Amex(2), Capital One, and others. I did get turned down for a Welle Fargo card which really surprised me and they quoted the serious delinquency as one of the reasons. 

So my question, should I just let it go and let them fall off or should I try to fight with them and get try to get it off my credit file either with a PFD (which I really don't want to do) or try and dispute it off?

Thanks for your input. 

[Remedios]

Who is currently holding this debt? Sounds like you're stating it's still with the OC after 6 years. 

I dont see anything you could dispute, the debt is yours. If you do so, it may update and hurt your score even more. 

[Anonymous]

Well it’s past hands a couple of times. It’s now with a collection agency. I know it’s my debt however I think that they have some fault for shutting off people’s access to pay online. Even if your one day late. They are trying to get people to default. Do you think a consumer statement saying that a complaint was filed with the federal banking commission would help?

[thornback]

Hi dwc -- welcome to the forums!

FP will not agree to a PFD == so don't bother.  And even if you were to pay the debt in full, they would never grant a Goodwill deletion.

So...  what you should do comes down to how badly you want this account gone - because, assuming you have any grounds for dispute, it will be a fight. 

I also suggest you not dispute directly through the bureaus because that will just result in account correction / updating as opposed to deletion - which is your goal. 

The only way to get FP to remove an account is to prove that they are reporting innaccurately.  To do so, you would have to obtain hard (paper) copies of your reports from all 4 bureaus (they also report to Innovis) and review for errors /innacuries (no matter how minor they may be).   Hard copy reports show more detailed information than online / web versions and display data in the exact way the creditor is reporting it (including historical payment & ACV data).     It is also a good idea to gather any copies of your billing statements to check against the info reported to the bureaus. FP has a history for innaccurate reporting so your chances of finding some disputable entries fairly high.  

If any innacuracies or errors are found, you would have grounds for filing a Direct Dispute, (Notice of Direct Dispute under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)(D) and 16 CFR 660.4).  This type of dispute would be filed directly with First Premier - not through the credit bureaus - by mail, and would detail any discrepencies in their reporting across the bureaus (such as one month reported as late on one bureau but not another, different first month of delinquency notated,  etc.) along with a demand that they remove the tradeline.  Note: They do not have to remove the tradeline, they can simply opt to correct the errors - but given the age of the account they may be more inclined to remove it altogether.   If they correct the errors instead of removing them, check the udpated data for new errors.   

They will respond to you by mail with their decision within a couple of weeks -- they are actually pretty quick with responding.    Their favorite repsonse is "we are reporting accurately" along with an outright refusal of your request.   If you have valid innaccuracies that you are disputing, then don't give up, send another dispute re-iterating the issues.   It may take multiple attempts to be successful  (it took me a full year, 2 bureau disputes, and 4 Direct disputes to get my paid FP charge-off removed  --  you can read my story here).  

Mail your entire packet to: 

Premier Bankcard, LLC

PO Box 5114

Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5114

Attn: Business Communications

If no innacuracies / errors are found, then it is likely you will, unfortunately, be stuck with this tradeline until it reaches the 7 year reporting statute.   

Keep in mind though that if you do not pay the outstanding debt -- FP may decide to update the tradeline with new negative 'failure to pay' remarks at anytime between now and the time it falls off (they also may never update again; it's 50/50)  -- this update can drop your scores because it will make the delinquence appear "new" again in the eyes of FICO.   If you pay it, there will be no more updates for the remaining 2 years it's on your reports.  

Good Luck!

[thornback]

I'm fairly certain First Premier owns the debt -- they don't sell their debts,  they only assign collection authority to the collection agency - but will often lie to the consumer that they "sold" the debt -- so don't fall for that.   If the tradeline still shows an outstanding balance on your credit reports -then they own the debt.    If FP, in fact, sold the debt, they would be required to update the tradeline to reflect a $0 balance and a 'SOLD' notation.   

So if they claim they sold it and can't assist you... point that out. 

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@Remedios wrote:

Who is currently holding this debt? Sounds like you're stating it's still with the OC after 6 years. 

I dont see anything you could dispute, the debt is yours. If you do so, it may update and hurt your score even more. 

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[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Well it’s past hands a couple of times. It’s now with a collection agency. I know it’s my debt however I think that they have some fault for shutting off people’s access to pay online. Even if your one day late. They are trying to get people to default. Do you think a consumer statement saying that a complaint was filed with the federal banking commission would help?

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Nope.