Hi NorseViking - welcome to the forums!
@Anonymous wrote:Hi, I'm fairly new in the USA and have not had any credit here.
My back story made short:
I have moved around the country because of my job. I just recently downloaded creditkarma to check my credit score and to see what kind of options I have to apply for a credit card.
Please understand, Credit Karma is only good for monitoring changes to your Transunion and Equifax credit reports - ignore the scores. The scores provided are not FICO scores, they are of the Vantage 3 model and responds to changes to your credit differently than FICO. The majority of lenders use FICO scores to determine your credit worthiness, rendering Vantage scores virtually useless. There are a few platforms that will provide FICO scores (free or for a cost):
Monthly Experian FICO 8 score (FREE): https://www.discover.com/free-credit-score/ -- You do not have to be a Discover cardholder, just sign up.
All three FICO 8 scores: $1 / 7-day Trial at creditchecktotal.com -- Just be sure to cancel before the trial ends. You can do this more than once (at least, until they catch on that folks abuse this...).
Experian.com offers a variety of FICO monitoring memberships. The most expensive is CreditWorks premium for $24.99 (or $29.99, not sure) / month. That gives you daily Experian reports and FICO scores with monthly updated Transunion and Equifax reports and scores. Experian also runs creditchecktotal (mentioned above) so if you do the $1 trial, it will give you access to the Experian mobile app & website which is exactly what you'd get if you went directly through Experian.
Some card issuers also offer monthly FICO scores -- like Citi, Amex, Discover... -- so you should check with your card issuer(s) to see what, if any, scores they may offer -- just be sure to check the small print for the scoring model they are providing becuase many offer Vantage scores because they're cheap to provide.
myFICO is the most costly because it provides all 28 versions of your FICO scores, not just FICO 8. The other versions include mortgage, auto, bankcard enhanced models, as well as FICO 9.
To my surprise, I had a degratory (I think this was the word they used) mark on it from an old Comcast bill.
#1 I can never remember having had a Comcast subscription.
#2 I have never lived at the address that the bill was reported from.
I tried to dispute this transaction but to be able to report it as fraud I would have to come up with proof that I had never lived there. this was back in 2015. I only keep my receipts and for 12 months. and I did not have a letter or anything that proved that I never lived at that address.
Since I'm not used to the USA credit system which is ass-backward compared to what I'm used to. I paid the $108 I supposedly owed, thinking this would take it off my report.
Come to find out it has not been removed.
What can I do to get them to remove it?
reading on the forum here, I have heard about the GoodWill letters, but I have no idea how to write one.
am I supposed to send it to Comcast or ERC?
Since I have already paid it, I don't have that Negotiation leverage, is there something else I can do/use?
Haha at 'ass-backward' -- Yes, our system seems odd at first glance; fortunately once you begin to understand the ins-and-outs of the scoring and tracking system, you'll realize it's not so bad (tho far from flawless). By law, negative / deragotory accounts can remain on your credit reports for 7 years and 180 days (usually just 7 years) after the Date of First Delinquency (DOFD). The DOFD is the month / year the account first became delinquent and was never brought current. Negative accounts hurt your credit for the entire time they remain on your reports, though they hurt less as they age.
Goodwills often work very well with collection agencies -- especially once they are paid. Too bad you didn't know about offering a Pay-for-Delete (PFD) prior to paying the balance, but still good you paid it because there will be no further negative updates to the account. This appears to be a collection item - is it listed with ERC as the contact, or Comcast? You need to figure out who placed this collection on your reports in order to determine to whom the Goodwill letter should be sent. I think it's most likely ERC. Can you please tell us exacly how the account appears on your reports (or copy/paste it)?
Folks have seen great success with Goodwill letters, and the previous poster provided a link to some Goodwill successes that you should find helpful. A Goodwill letter is not complicated, you are simply asking the creditor / collection agency to remove an account from your reports as a good faith gesture. Some folks explain the hardship they experienced that led to the delinquency, others simply state they have learned from their poor financial mismanagement and take full responsibility for the acquired debt, while asking for a new start.
You could explain your situation just as you did in this post -- that you are new to the US, do not recall ever having a Comcast account, but are, unfortunately, unable to provide proof that you were never a resident of the address associated with the account. Nonetheless, you paid the debt and full and are hoping ERC will be willing to remove the collection in good faith. That's it - very simple, humble, to the point. You can either send this letter by regular US mail, or by email if you are able to locate an email address.
You can also review the forum search results for 'ERC Goodwill' for experiences from other forum members.
Best of luck to you!!
Welcome to the board 
If its for sure not yours use the laws afforded you in the FCRA to have it permanently excluded from your CRs
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for a great explanation and help. I tried to get my FICO score from Discover, but I got an error message saying
"we're unable to provide you a credit scorecard at this time"
I hope this is not an indication of bad news. but in the last part of the questions, I had to answer on the Discover page. they said it looked like I had opened 2 mortgages for a house and, 1 mortgage for an auto loan. Something I have not done. I have never had a mortgage in the USA. so this kinda freaked me out a little.
I have not gotten an actual report, so I cannot tell you what it says about whos the owner of the account. I only have the CreditKarma I can't figure out how to post a Picture on this forum.
Those are verification Qs. You have to answer them correctly in order to verify your identity & they purposely throw in erroneous information... If you fail the Qs, they cannot issue a report. You'll have to try again later...
As for the ERC / Comcast account, I'm pretty sure the collection item was added by ERC -- usually, Comcast doesn't report their own tradeline, instead, the collection agency (ERC) will report a collection item.
Thank you for helping a Noobie out! yeah, I answered all correctly. It correctly. It just caught me off guard. Thank you for clarifying
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you for helping a Noobie out! yeah, I answered all correctly. It correctly. It just caught me off guard. Thank you for clarifying
So if you answered correctly, I wonder why they were unable to provide you with a score at this time? Perhaps just a temporary system issue?