CRA will not budge!

[sobroke]

I have disputed online and by writing to Experian about a cc that was IIB. This cc is still reporting CO on my credit report. I filed in Aug and there is charge-offs for the month of Sept., Oct., Nov, and Dec.!!! The CRA says I have to contact the creditor and dispute with them. The creditor says that they are reporting it correctly. What is my next step? I am very frustrated with this whole cleaning up the credit report.

Moderators: Feel free to move this if I should have posted it elsewhere.

[StaciMM]

I had the same issue w/ Experian. They seem to like posting a new month when they 'verify' an account. I don't think their way of noting a CO is the same way of noting a BK. (I have a Cap 1 showing as a CO one month, and a CO for the month of BK also. In the notes for that month, though, it says IIB in 09/05.)

Try writing a new dispute, but be generic. Just state that there are 'innaccuracies' in the way it is being reported. Since they won't have specific info to verify w/ the creditor, there is a better chance that it will not be verified. I didn't do this intentionally, but it worked for me on an HSBC account... Had the same issue-CO listed 4X so it did look like I had negative after filing. I wrote again, about there being errors in the way it was reported. Got a letter from HSBC that they had been notified of my dispute but didn't know how to respond since they didn't know what was supposed to be wrong. The letter asked for me to contact HSBC (I didn't) to clarify-the account was deleted from EX since HSBC didn't respond to them within the proper timeframe.

[sobroke]

Wouldn't you agree StaciMM that the key to fixing your credit report is to identify the littlest mistakes and make the CRAs verify it or delete it? I will mail a letter to Chase (the creditor that is reporting these COs) and hopefully that will be it. Ex says they are done with the investigation and that all information was verified. That can't be true, because they don't have $0 IIB on those accounts. Ex also told me to contact the creditor if I wanted to go further with the dispute.

[sobroke]

Oh, did you quote any FCRA laws or threaten suit? I did that on a couple. Some it worked...some it didn't.

[StaciMM]

NO-my research hasn't gotten that far. My dispute efforts were not all that organized!

[StaciMM]

I think there may be a translation problem between what info the creditor gives to the CRA and what the CRA shows on the credit report. The 4X CO, for example, only happened on EX. I disputed the same accounts will TU & EQ also, and they just updated to show $0 balance owed. I don't think the creditor reported one set of info to EX, and another to TU & EQ.

Another translation issue (perhaps) is when I look at my report directly from EQ, it shows that I have X open accounts and Y closed accounts. When I look at an EQ report thru TrueCredit, the #'s are not the same. TC shows extra 'open' accounts, though I know EQ is registering the accounts as closed.

Wouldn't you agree StaciMM that the key to fixing your credit report is to identify the littlest mistakes and make the CRAs verify it or delete it? I will mail a letter to Chase (the creditor that is reporting these COs) and hopefully that will be it. Ex says they are done with the investigation and that all information was verified. That can't be true, because they don't have $0 IIB on those accounts. Ex also told me to contact the creditor if I wanted to go further with the dispute.

[sobroke]

Trust me--I am not at all organized either LOL! But I am trying to sound as professional and intelligent as I can (hee hee) by saying, " According to the FCRA, you must verify this information as reported or remove it entirely". I agree that my TU and Equ cr are totally different. Actually I haven't even began disputing anything with Equ. Nothing (and I mean NOTHING) is $0 or IIB. I need to mail them a letter. Hey StaciMM--do you think there is a huge discrepancy between the TC reports and the actual CRA credit reports? I know that the scores are certainly different. YOu mentioned that the # of closed/open accounts are different. I use TC also.

[sobroke]

Before I got my auto loan, I thought all my accounts were reported correctly (according to TC). The dealership showed me my credit report from Transunion and there were accounts that showed up differently. Some were still open with a balance, some were charge-offs, etc... This makes me so upset. Does it take awhile after the investigation is done to update on the "main report".

[StaciMM]

For me-the account info is the same (comparing TC credit reports w/ credit reports directly from the CRA's). The only difference is that EQ shows more 'open' than I have on TC. It actually helps the TC score analysis-on the tips part to the score, it says I have too many derogatory accounts in comparison to my total # open for TU & EX, doesn't say that about EQ, LOL. (They are old, positive tl's that TC thinks are 'open'.)

About the CO showing on EX when it isn't supposed to, I also had that on my IIB car loan. Showed 90+ days late & CO for 09/05 when my last payment was made on 09/06/05. (I wish I'd decided to surrender it before I made that payment!) I did write about that one, and the CO still shows but it no longer shows as 90+ days late.

If you're seeing it one way in TC and another when someone pulled your credit, that would be a concern. You may have a split file, where your file go so big that it split into 2 and when someone pulls your credit, you don't know which they'll get. Do you know which CRA the car financing pulled? Perhaps call that one to discuss the discrepancies.

[sobroke]

I think it was Equ and TU. Then again, my Equ credit report hasn't been fixed yet. But the negligence of them not putting $0 IIB on ANY of my reports probably hurt my interest rate. I know...I know..it is my fault that I didn't wait until my cr was all cleaned up before getting a vehicle, but desperate times call for desperate measures! Thanks for the advice/info StaciMM. You are a valuable member to this site.

[StaciMM]

Thanks for the nice words.

Keep in mind that every now and then you should probably get a paper copy of your report from each bureau. If you write in about a dispute, be sure and request that they send you a FULL COPY once they're done. IF not, they might just send you info on the accounts you disputed.