Account Numbers Not On Record

[baybreeze]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any of their credit card accounts listed as Account Number - "Not on Record" in any your credit reports?

I have a CHASE account listed this way on Equifax...there is no account number at all. But it shows a balance of $16,966....and past due amount of $2489 (it also shows the current status as "bad debt/collection instead of discharged in bankruptcy)I only had one Chase account (and several other cards) that WAS discharged in bankruptcy Aug '03. The other 2 cr agencies do have the acct # listed and the balance and past due amounts are exactly the same. I am wondering if this is some sort of ploy by the credit card? Like for example..if i dispute this information and it gets corrected...will it then show that i am currently past due as of today? In the file the last date of activity is Jan '03.

Another question - i am wondering when one files the bankruptcy and the lawyer gets all the paperwork filed with all the creditors and amounts owed....since it takes a while from the first date of filing to the actual discharge....I imagine that one's credit balances would still accue interest fees, late fees, etc....so could that be why i still show over $2000 in past due amount?

Also....

[StaciMM]

Any balance you owed to a creditor would be discharged. The only way you'd owe is if the creditor disputed certain transactions (and won the dispute) or if you took out credit after BK. That doesn't mean they will be quick to report correctly...

I don't think it is unusual for the bureaus to show incomplete account #'s, though I don't know if 'not on record' is normal.

[baybreeze]

Hmm, i havent received or even tried to get any credit since my bankruptcy and I didnt leave out any creditors that I owed money to.

Would I ever know if a creditor disputed any transactions and/or if they won the dispute?

I know all the acounts in my reports were listed in my bk filing and all were discharged as far as I know. My lawyer never said otherwise and I never rec'd another call or notice or anything from the credit card companies..I am thinking that maybe they reported it incorrectly?

[StaciMM]

If you never heard/received anything-then its a simple case of the creditor is not reporting correctly. NO surprise there! Get copies of all 3 reports, and write to the bureaus letting them know you owe no balance on the account due to BK.

[Tberry]

Chase Account after BK

BayBreeze, Good luck with getting Chase to fix anything they have put on your credit report. We had a very similar situation with a loan that was discharged in BK. The loan kept showing up on our credit report as" past due", months after the discharge! Their refusal to change the report cost us a mortgage and higher interest rates on everything! It has taken me almost a year of calling and faxing letters to get them to update the report to show the account included in BK. Don't give up on it, they will eventually change it! GOOD LUCK!

[baybreeze]

Thanks all! I will keep disputing it. For anyone that has disputed the same or similar thing (where discharged accounts are not reported as such)....once you got it resolved and corrected with the credit reporting bureaus, did you notice if your actual credit/FICO scores went UP or DOWN?

I would think it would go up some only because there would be no more balance or past due showing...but I may be wrong....

[StaciMM]

This wasn't dispute related, but my FICO for EQ right before filing was 482. When the BK notation hit, it went down to 474. (I used Scorewatch, so got alerts for changes-didn't buy a new report each time!) I had 2 credit cards, both with $600 limits and both reporting balances in the $1000-1200 area. After getting the BK notice, both of those creditors updated the accounts to show $0 owed due to BK. My score shot up into the mid to high 500's! Utilization plays a BIG part in credit score, so going from over 100% utilization down to 0% is what did it, I think.

My score now on EQ, 2 months after discharge, is low 600's. I've opened 2 small limit store accounts, 1 small limit credit card, and I have student loans that are still open/paid as agreed accounts. I only had 2 credit cards in the BK, and some misc. collections. I got all the collection accounts removed, so now I mainly need time to improve my score.

[baybreeze]

Thanks all for your advice and input! Im going to review all my reports, note ALL the errors, etc...and start sending the dispute letters.