Anonymous Posted March 4, 2003 Report Share Posted March 4, 2003 Listmates: I posted previously, but did not recieve any replies. I'm about ready to give up on this whole dispute thing, so any & all help would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the long letter! Back in'97-'99, my DH & I went thru extreme financial hardship...partly our own fault for being over-extended, but mostly due to many things beyond our control (Things such as lost work time due to illness/injury, medical bills out the ying-yang, lost job due to office being closed(corporate restucturing), $8000 water damage to our home which our insurance didn't cover and, to top it off, our daughter getting pregnant and presenting us with twin G-sons. She married the father, but we've been basically supporting all of them ever since) Before then, our credit wasn't bad. It was all just too much. We almost lost everything. In 2000, I ended up inheriting some money, so I used the money to pay the outstanding bills. At the time, I was unaware that I needed to get things in writing before paying. I just wanted to get the creditors off our backs! Now it's come back to haunt us! So here we are now, finding out that paying off all those bills didn't do didly squat! I'm new on here, but I've been reading the posts/researching on my own. I've sent dispute letters and got some items deleted. It's now been 30 days on the second round. I got no response from equifax whatsoever, even though I got a green card back. TU & EXP didn't delete a single thing, except for a judgement that was filed against us incorrectly. It looks like they didn't verify a single thing....just said, "updated". What is that? Is that supposed to be verification? They also did not provide any info back to me on my request for info on previously verified entries. The companies (CA's) we paid off( agreed upon settlements), are now demanding more money and saying they never agreed to a settlement. So now, the OC's are reporting as well as two more CA's....all on the same accounts. I've got like 3 neg. reports on each account...and I paid them the money!I even sent copies of the checks, which the CRA's said they "can't use the info you provided." We are trying to sell our house and buy a new one (to get out from under the high interest re-financing we had to do). I'm about to tear my hair out here. Need advise please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retmar Posted March 5, 2003 Report Share Posted March 5, 2003 I'm assuming you never got anything in writing. At least you have the cancelled checks. Do you remember the name of the rep you made the agreement with? Do you remember the dates, wording of conversation, anything? If you can, write it down. Do you have anything at all besides the checks? Compose a letter stating all of this and mail it CMRR. Wait for a response. What you want is to try and get them to confess to you about the payment arrangements. If you don't get any written response, do the nasty and call them in hopes of talking to the same one as before. In other words, try and get them on anything you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smogtek Posted March 5, 2003 Report Share Posted March 5, 2003 Let’s see if I can get you going here:1) If you haven’t got current copies of each one of your reports - not a 3 in 1 – get them. Remember that as long as you keep disputing within a 90-day time span, you keep getting another FREE report with each update!2) Call the CRAs and dispute all but your current name and address. This is EASILY done by phone and if you don’t get what you want, hang up and call back later. You’ll probably get another rep that will be more cooperative. Most reports have a bunch of different names/addresses and creditors/CAs use these to identify you. 3) For the disputes the CRAs haven’t responded to in the 30-day time frame, call ‘em up and demand they DELETE THEM!4) For the ones you paid off and didn’t get anything in writing send a request for validation CMRRR to the CA. Wait ‘til you get the green card back, then dispute it with the CRA. If the CA “verifies” to the CRA before they validate to you, they’ve violated the FDCPA and you can use that as possible leverage to get ‘em to delete it.5) When disputing with the CRA, it has been recommended to go after the oldest tradelines first ‘cause they are supposed to be the most difficult to find documentation for thus the easiest to get rid of, but not always. A lot of companies don’t keep “paper” more than a couple of years because storage costs are too high.6) Look for stuff like duplicate entries. Keep in mind that (I believe) both the CA and OC can report the same thing. Double check the DOLAs (Date of Last Activity) against previous reports. These guys have a habit of reaging stuff.7) Be careful when using “Not Mine” as a dispute reason with the CRAs. It’s too easy for them to just check your name, SSN and address with the CA/OC. Be creative and try “wrong amount”, “wrong DOLA”, “wrong (fill-in-the-blank)”.8) Request an explanation of the verification process from the CRA via CMRRR and if they don’t give it to you (they usually don’t) tell ‘em you’re gonna sue if they don’t delete. If they don’t delete, sue in small claims.Hope this helps to get you started. [Edit by smogtek on Tuesday, March 4, 2003 @ 08:12 PM] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Credit Hawk Posted March 5, 2003 Report Share Posted March 5, 2003 Hi Prissy – Follow Smogtek’s advice, because it’s excellent, as is most of the info contained on this board.I know it's frustrating, but there are two things required to repair your reports -- persistence and patience.Send those debt validation notices to the CA.Send the dispute letters to the CRA's.Follow up with letters, phone calls, etc.Create a folder and keep a copy of every single letter of correspondence. (yours & theirs)and most of all; dispute, dispute, dispute; and when that doesn't work, dispute it again.Believe me, you will see results. I'll see you in the 700 club soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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