I NEED SOME SERIOUS HELP!!!!

[myesha87]

I dont want to make this a long post so I will be very short.  I got a new car in 2007 financed with State Farm Bank I lost my job the very next year.  I contacted them to see what my options were becauase I could no longer afford the payment.  At the time I was 19 and I didnt know any better.  I was advised to pay what I could and I was able to pay $250 instead of the payment which was $344. I didnt know try to refinance it at the time because I figured that they wouldnt be able to since I didnt have a job.  So my account went 90 days late because I was only paying partial payments.  I kept making payments and I never knew that they had already charged the account off.  I could be way off but any information would be helpful.  

I have paid this off but here are my questions:

1. I thought that a charge off only occured when there is no payment made, is this true?

2. This has been deleted from my Transunion report but not the other 2. The dates that the bureaus have are completely different, isn't this illegal?

3. I have submitted several disputes to get the info corrected or deleted and they wont budge. Should I continue to dispute or will it become frivilous?

4.  What exactly should I be doing?  I would like to hear any and everything that could be beneficial or helpful.

Thank you in advance

[Anonymous]

Each payment you made probably moved the DoFD. It never brought it current but likely this has what occurred as far as the dates being different. Have you contacted the bank to see why they reportesbit like that after you did what they told you to?

[gdale6]

The DOFD never resets until the account is brought completely current, once an account goes to CO it can never again be brought current, the individual lates will drop at 7 yrs for each one and if the account is showing 0 balance with a CO it will be gone 7.5 yrs from the DOFD, if it is not dispute it as obsolete and give the DOFD date. The CRAs should be showing pretty much the same information and if they are not there is a problem. Dispute it with a Sec 623 to the OC and demand correct info be reported to both those bureaus, if unsuccessful file complaints with the CFPB on the OC & the 2 CRAs.

[myesha87]

Thanks for the responses.  I've called numerous times and they will not provide any assistance.  They feel that they are providing what the bureaus are asking for so they are saying I need to contact the bureau.  I have written several letters and I haven't gotten anywhere.  I just thought that they wrongfully charged my account off that was why I was so concerned.

[RobertEG]

1.  A creditor can charge-off a debt once they can make the determination that they consider the debt to have become "uncollectible," which is usually substantialed by a prolonged period of delinquency, such as 120+ days.  It is simply their statement that you are not expected to satisfy the debt.  Taking the CO does not relieve any consumer oblitation for the entire debt, or prevent them from reporting further delinquencies.

It is certainly a bit quesitonable to hold a debt to have become uncollectible while the consumer is making payments in an effort to satisfy the debt.

However, questioning their right to have charged-off the debt is probably a bit iffy.  You would most likely need an atty to question its legality.

If a consumer were only paying $1 a month, that would not represent a reasonable expectation of satisfaction of the debt, but paying $250 out of $344 represents, at least in my opinion, a substantial likelihood that the consumer will pay the debt.

That, coupled with the fact that they waited only 90'ish days fo make that determination is in my mind pretty shoddy business.

They also could have chosen to obtain benfit of the CO without reporting it to the CRAs, and thus damaging the consumer report of a paying customer.

2. The maximum statutory period for exclusion of the CO could not possibly, at this time, have expired.  Earlier exclusion by one or more CRAs is discretionary on their part, and not binding on other CRAs.

The statutory requirement is that they must exclude no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD on the account.  Since the account was not opened until 2007, the latest exclusion date could not be prior to at least mid-2014.

3. A second or subsequent dispute on substantially the same grounds can be dismissed as frivolous or irrelevant.   You can always send a renewed dispute, but to be entitled to consideration on the merits, you must include additional information relevant to the asserted basis for its inaccuracy.

Challenging a CO really has only one basis.... that they were not legally entitled to have taken that accounting measure.  A huge obstacle to show, and not something a CRA is likely to hold without legal determination of that fact.

If you feel the CO was improper, you would most likely have to challenge it in court by bringing your own civil action against them.

4.  I would use the arguments in (1) above to request their good-will deletion of the reporting of the charge-off, particualry in view of the fact that you have now paid the debt, further demonstarting that their earlier determination that you wont pay the debt does not represent you as a consumer.  You do honor your debt when able.

[myesha87]

Thank you!!! This is the exact information that I needed.

[RobertEG]

Their central point seems to be that there is some requirement that they must have reported the CO, and thus any issue of deltion is up to the CRA.

Thre is no requirement that a creditor must report all information related to their account.  The only statutory requirement is that anything they do report cannot knowingly be inaccurate.  Their reporing of the CO was discretionary,not required.

The CRAs do frown on deltion based on payment of a debt, so pursuing deltion via request to the CRA is most likely not the path to take.

The creditor can simply report its deletion, and need provide no basis for doing so to the CRA.

Best to pursue good-wiill deletion directly with the creditor.

Along that line, it appears the underlings you are dealing with are somewhat unreasonable.

I would suggest contacting someone at the executive level who has discretion to grant exceptions on a case by case basis.

[myesha87]

I have sent several goodwill letters to State Farm and they have politely asked me to stop writing them. I dont want to piss them off and then they do something spiteful to my credit report.  I have heard of that happening to several people. I just dont know what else to do.  The good thing is that this is the only baddie that I have and it comes off next year so maybe I'll just have to wait.