Through PFD, DV, and EE I have gotten nearly all the baddies but 3-4 off my CR from 7ish years ago, and a couple from 2012 (I had 7 or more baddies with each CRA) and my FICO is now up over 100 points since February, but I am noticing some stange things with the remaining 3-4. I had a car loan (Redwood CU $7000) with a last payment date of 9/08. RedwoodCU sold my debt to a CA, now they are both continuing to report it on my CR, and the CA is hard pulling whenever they can. Now the CA that was assigned my Redwood CU car loan debt is reporting a last payment date of 12/09 while the orginal lender, Redwood, is reporting the correct date of 9/08. I have disputed it but they would not change it. So I called the CA to ask them what I need to do. I pointed out the original lender has the correct dates, and that there is no way I could have made a payment in 9/08 as I was living overseas and certianly made no payment. I asked if I can get this straigtened out with them directly or should I do it through my lawyer or what? They said they will investigate it. At least the CRA's are looking as though they will delete one of the duplicates, but they are deleting the original CU and not the CA, and the CA is the one with the newer dates. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
I also discovered Washington Mutual (Chase) is doing the same thing by changing the name of the deragatory from Wamu to Chase, and having the CA only mention Wamu, (Chase bought WAMU after I defaulted) and also change the dollar amount by one dollar I assume so it would be more difficult to tell they are the same debt. So can a single debt be duplicated like that? I am not sure if they removed the Redwood CU because it was a duplicate or because it was aging off anyway.
Starting Score 2/2015: TU 519 EX 524
Thanks impurfecture. That helps. I had already called the CA the other day and they are "investigating" and will get back to me.
So I did a little more work on this today. Took imperfecture's advice and filed complaints with the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau and BBB. Also found Credit Solutions Corp's complaint email, so fired off one to them too.
Subject: Violation of U.S. Fiar Credit Reporting Act
To Whom it May Concern;
Be advised that this is an attempt to allow CSC to correct this error before the violation is reported to the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau, the Better Business Bureau, and further legal action to be taken against CSC.
As you can see, RCU, the original lender, has repeatedly reported the date of last payment as August 2008 on all three credit reporting agencies. However, CSC has erroneously reported the date of last payment as December 2009. I have attempted to correct this with all three credit reporting agencies, however CSC maintains that these dates are correct. They are not. The RCU date of August 2008 is consistent with my records, as I was not living in the U.S. between September 2008 and November 2014, and certainly did not make any payments during this time.
Regards,
Joseph ******
Thier auto reponse was encouraging:
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We take all complaints seriously at our company and we appreciate hearing from you and knowing about this.
Your complaint in now in the hands of our Compliance and Quality Control Officer, Andrew Strong for investigation. (Mod Cut- Direct contact info cannot be posted in the public forum)
Please take his call or reply to his email when he contacts you.
We will make every reasonable attempt to resolve your complaint within 72 hours. In the event that you are not satisfied with the outcome of this investigation within 72 hours, please call me directly (Mod Cut) and I will get involved personally.
Sincerely,
Raechelle Joplin
President/CEO
Credit Solutions Corporation
5454 Ruffin Road, San Diego, CA 92123
(Mod Cut)
CFPB complaint:
BBB Complaint:
Wow! It worked...and in just 2 days! Thank you Comercial Financial Protection Bureau!!!
Hmmm. I may have gotten my hopes up prematurly. Today I got an alert that "Credit Solutions Corp has flagged my account as collections." I'm confused. I thought they were going to delete it...or is there a trick in the wording. Trade line vs. Collections? What does this mean?
@JoeDiver74 wrote:
Hmmm. I may have gotten my hopes up prematurly. Today I got an alert that "Credit Solutions Corp has flagged my account as collections." I'm confused. I thought they were going to delete it...or is there a trick in the wording. Trade line vs. Collections? What does this mean?
I think you were thinking right, it states in their letter to you that they're deleting the tradeline, so it should be removed from your credit reports. I'd give it a little more time, some CRAs take longer than others to update.
So I spent 2 hours on the phone with Experian yesterday to discuss the Credit Solutions Corp issue and the other 4 baddies still on my report, (everything should be from close to 7 years ago) First woman I talked to didn't really know or could do anything. She seemed to be a customer service rep for the Experian Direct service I pay for. After getting what info I could from her, which wasn't much, I eventually was transferred to a a dispute resolution agent, or something to that affect. Wow what a knowledgeable, snappy, and results oriented woman she was! After each issue I discussed there were looooonnnnggg periods of hold which I was totally happy to sit though as she worked on them. Of the 5 baddies I still had (all previously disputed online with no success) 2 were original creditors (Wamu/Chase and Redwood Credit Union) and one collection agency for Guitar Center/HSBC (Portfolio Recovery)...for those three she emmediatly just matter of factly said, "yeah we'll just remove those right now. They are dropping off soon anyway." Then for the two remaining CA's I explained the CFPB letter I had for Credit Solutions and the wrong dates they were reporting, so she disputed it again based on that, plus she could see from the Redwood CU account that she had just agreed to delete that the dates were wrong. She had me upload the letter to her, told me to expect it off in 24-72 hours!. Lastly, I explained the issue with WAMU and CHASE that imperfectfuture pointed out to me. and if she was aware of the court ruling regarding Chase collecting against previous WAMU customers. She said she was. I also pointed out that the fact that it was 7 years old. Again, she said she will dispute it again on these grounds and I should expect it off my report in 24 to 72 hours!! So if she is right, I should go from 5 baddies to 0 baddies in the next couple days! Whoohoo!! Strangly, yesterday, just after the call, my Exerian FICO score went from 639 to 657, but no reason was given and all 5 baddies are of course still here. So I am left to wonder what my score will look like after these 5 are removed considering I have several positive but now closed accounts dating back to the 90's, and in the last 6 months I have added two credit cards (secured) and an unsecured Care Credit Dental/Medical credit card for $800, all with $0 balances, and a 5 month old used car loan, ($7000) with no lates payments. What do you guys think?
Monday will be a calls into Equifax and Transunion for much the same conversations.
Well, I spent hours on the phone with Equifax and Transunion today. Wow what a difference from Experian. The first lady I got from Equifax from an overseas call center was dumb as rocks. Wouldn't let me speak to a supervidor so I gave up and called back to get someone with a southern accent slightly more intellegent and helpful that contradicted everything the dumb lady was telling me (such as if I dispute something, it will possibly be renewed for another 7 years, or that for the purposes of correcting the age of debt, two accounts [one credit union and the collection agency they sold the debt to] can not be considered as the same debt even if the dollar amount is identical, and the collection account even mentions the credit union as the original lender UNLESS there are matching account numbers in both. All three people I spoke to said it was violation of federal law to allow early exclusions, even if the debt shows aging off next month ortwo. I ended up disputing a bunch of stuff with them based on age and faxing in the message from Credit Solution Corp regarding the CFPB complaint above.
So whats the secret? Anyone have better numbers to call? I feel like I never got the right person despite asking fro a supervisor. I used the numbers here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/CRA-Phone-amp-Fax-Numbers/m-p/407647