Inquiry Removal Letter to Experian

[Wyndo]

My first letter to them was polite, simply requesting the removal of several inquiries which I did not authorize, and which appear to be collection activity (some names I recognize as CA's which were previously reporting delinquent accounts I have already removed by their failure to validate - some appear to be for mortgage (I have never applied for a mortgage) and so on. I was nice, and I explained the damaging effects of unauthorized inquiries (they should already know this).

The letter I'm sending today isn't so nice. Here it is.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2002,

Experian,

To date, I have not received the results of your investigation regarding my dispute dated October 17th. I did receive a notice from you dated October 30th, explaining to me what an “inquiry” is (I know what an inquiry is), but this did not satisfy your obligation, by law, to investigate and correct inaccurate information which appears on my credit report. As the 30-day clock has already lapsed, your only course of action here can be to delete the disputed items from my credit report. I have attached an additional copy of my October 17th letter, which you received (I have the delivery confirmation) on October 30th, for your convenience.

Inquiries are not a statement of fact. The inquiries I have listed did not have my authorization nor a permissible purpose to obtain my credit history. The law makes no distinction here, by placing the responsibility to confirm this information with you. Inquiries hurt a credit score, and are a part of the report. You are not exempt from following the law, simply because these entries are not tradelines. The FCRA clearly places this responsibility on you. The information you are reporting is incorrect in the way I have explained.

I am already in the process of preparing a small claims lawsuit against Trans Union for this very thing. I am willing to do the same for Experian, if need be. My credit is very important to me, and I hope that you will share my concerns over these inaccuracies. No additional 30-day “investigation” is required, nor is any further refusal to comply with the deletion of these inquiries. I expect an immediate reply, including an updated copy of my credit report, showing that these inquiries have been erased. Anything less will ensure that this matter is settled in court.

If your current position within Experian does not allow you to follow the law and immediately delete the inquiries defined on the following page, please see that my letter reaches a member of your company with some authority, not only as a means of protecting yourselves from a lawsuit over FCRA violations, but in the efforts to assure that this consumer’s complaint isn’t merely disregarded.

Sincerely,

Mike Snyder

(identify info follows)

[vonniegirl]

WHOA Wyndo, when you said not so nice you meant down right vicious

I like it! Okay if I need to can I use it? Thanks and Way to Go

[Wyndo]

Yeah, I skipped the intermediate letter between "nice" and "angry" - but I've been dealing with these yahoos (as well as yahoos from the other two) for *years* now. The first credit reports I received (from all 3 bureaus) were so far wrong, it's no wonder I couldn't even get credit with a powerful co-signer (the existence of my name on the deal at all would void it). Now, those things are off, gone, disputed, expired, unvalidated, whatever. I have over a dozen great, positive accounts (many of which are even paid off, such as credit cards and auto loans), except every time I turn around there are more inquiries listed that I didn't make. And I can't get these idiots to pay any attention to my disputes. I really think I'm going to have to sue -- I just wish there was a precedence to look at, others who've sued and won over the failure to investigate inquiries.

We will also be looking to buying a house sometime in March or April (trying to time it to coincide with having our last credit cards paid off, paying off my 401k loan (so I can re-borrow for the home) and before our current lease is up). These inquiries are the worst thing going for me, aside from the credit card balances which will be paid off in time. I'm not going to let these CRA's screw me out of thousands of dollars in added interest, simply because they're lazy.

[Edit by Wyndo on Tuesday, December 3, 2002 @ 11:49 AM]

[IB]

Great letter, Wyndo! Could I borrow some of it? Sending my 2nd one to TU tomorrow...as I said in the other thread, they don't care and I will make them care!

[Wyndo]

Yeah, I don't mind - I just don't want *everybody* using the *whole* thing, otherwise it'll start to look like a form letter.

[Anonymous]

Wyndo, be sure to let us know the results of your letter regarding inquiry removal. I'm curious as to what will happen.

[Wyndo]

The results are that they sent me a letter saying that they're "required by law" to list all inquiries, and that if I felt an inquiry was placed without a permissible purpose, I'd have to contact each of them individually. Basically, they told me to buzz off and leave them alone, which is what I expected to happen.

The CRA's won't investigate inquiries. TU has refused 3 times, at my straight-out explanation that a lawsuit will be forthcoming, and now Experian has ignored me twice. They really REALLY feel that they're not required by law to do anything about inquiries, and I've read the FCRA and *cannot* find anything showing that they're right. They sure think they are, though, and I wish I could find out why that is... if they've been winning cases for this, or what.

[cookiemnster]

<blockquote>Originally posted by Wyndo

The results are that they sent me a letter saying that they're "required by law" to list all inquiries, and that if I felt an inquiry was placed without a permissible purpose, I'd have to contact each of them individually. Basically, they told me to buzz off and leave them alone, which is what I expected to happen.

The CRA's won't investigate inquiries. TU has refused 3 times, at my straight-out explanation that a lawsuit will be forthcoming, and now Experian has ignored me twice. They really REALLY feel that they're not required by law to do anything about inquiries, and I've read the FCRA and *cannot* find anything showing that they're right. They sure think they are, though, and I wish I could find out why that is... if they've been winning cases for this, or what.

</blockquote>

Wyndo, there's an FTC opinion letter that says the CRA's aren't required to report inquiries AT ALL. Lemme see if I can find it.

5. When a re-seller furnishes a consumer report to a lender, and subsequently both the lender and the consumer claim that the request for the report was initiated in error by the lender, is the national repository that reports the "inquiry" permitted to remove the inquiry from its file at the request of the re-seller?

No. If a CRA supplies a consumer report, it may reflect that event by an inquiry notation. There is no legal or policy requirement to display the inquiry (other than to the consumer in connection with disclosure pursuant to Section 609(a)(3)). The fact that a consumer report was requested "in error" does not nullify the fact that the report was furnished; that information must be retained by the CRA so that it can comply with Sections 609(a)(3) and 611(d), among other reasons.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/cohan2.htm