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Ive built my credit score from a 550 to a 710 over the past year. Then the other day I get a letter in the mail saying my child support arrears are going to start getting reported to the credit bureau monthly. Ive been on child support for about a year and im in the arrears $1,770. ALL of the arrears are retroactive - meaning they just accumulated over the time the claim was made for me to be put on child support up until the time it took for them to scedule a hearing and set it up to garnish wages from my job. So ive never missed a payment once & a little bit comes out of my check monthly just for appears ( always has).
I called the CS office wondering why after a year of my not missing payments that they now decide to report my arrears to the credit bureau.. The guy tells me "oh thats normal, they do it to everybody. Dont worry, it wont effect your credit score because you make all your payments just fine.. you only have to worry if they send you a letter saying they are going to intercept your tax return".
sounds like some BS to me.. I dont see how any debt of 1,700 is not going to effect my score. Has anyone been in this same situation? In terms of arrears being reported that were retroactive? not arrears where you actually missed payments? is it true that this possibly wont effect my score?
The letter says I have 20 days to dispute the informations accuracy. The amount I owe is accurate I just feel this shouldnt happen to people who have made all payments and have always paid towards arrears. Should I dispute it anyway? whats the best way to go about this.
Also, I read there is a threshold in alot of states wheres they dont report to credit bureaus until it gets over a certain amount? is this true (im in PA).
@Anonymous wrote:
I had a 30 days late put on my credit from Child support, even though they were automatically taking it from my paycheck and it hurt my score. I had to file a dispute, basically saying it's impossible for me to pay late when it's a wage garnishment. They reversed it after a few weeks, but it still took a few months for my score to go back to normal. Hopefully everything works out for you and they remove any derogs they might have put on your report.
Lates from wage garnishments are usually the fault of the one garnishing the payment or their paid payroll processor in failing to hand over the money in a timely fashion.
Child support obligation is only reportable to a CRA if the consumer has become in arrears, and remains for up to 7 years from the last reported overdue date.
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FCRA 622 Information on overdue child support obligations
[15 U.S.C. § 1681s-1]
Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a consumer reporting agency shall include in any consumer report furnished by the agency in accordance with section 604 [§ 1681b] of this title, any information on the failure of the consumer to pay overdue support which is provided to a consumer reporting agency