Citibank - First USA - Bank One - AAARRRRGHH!

[poSSumX]

Last year, I was validating my credit reporting and found the above 3 OCs to be reporting improperly to the CRAs. This was in June 2004. I disputed with all 3 CRAs and all 3 trade lines were changed to IIB for all 3 creditors. Yeeha?? not really.

I am in the process of ACTIVELY working my credit reports within all above board means. I reran everything in Jan 2005, and low and behold, the same 3 OCs are now reporting as Charged Off - Collection. Disupted with CRAs.....you guessed it.....verified with OC that reporting is correct.

I spoke with some knuckle head at Bank One this evening, and she stated that they are within their federal right to report in this fashion. I would imagine the others will follow suit with this line of BS.

Being that my BK7 was DC in 01/2004, how do I go about getting these OC's to correct their reporting? I understand that these 3 are the current bastards of the OC world when it comes to this topic, and I want to know how to fight this injustice, as it would appear to be illegal.

If it is an ITS letter that is required, does anyone have an example that I could use and alter to my needs?

If it does come down to actually filing suit, how does one go about that? What is the cost? Must I have an attorney?

I am at the point of my head exploding as I am trying to refinance my house, now that I can, to get my second mortgage down to a realistic interest rate (and I can currently get a rate that is lower than my first mortgage, combining both into one). This trouble with these 3 OCs may cost me that refinance.

[5150]

i had fusa report a balance on an account that was IIB. i called transunion and got a little love. they said that any account IIB should also say 0 balance so they repaired it for me. i dont know about the other 2 cras will do when you call.

[poSSumX]

TU seems to be reasonable, however EQ & EX are a bit tougher to deal with from my experience. Kind of makes sense, when the TU scores are typically the highest.

[willingtocope]

Here's a copy of a letter I wrote to Chase about similar accouts. They changed the TLs to IIB...

<date>

Credit Card Co. via Certified Mail: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Some street

Some city

Re: Account numbers;

me #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wife #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Our Street

Our City

To Whom It May Concern:

It has come to our attention that your organization is reporting these two credit card accounts to the various Credit Reporting Agencies as “ Transferred/Account Charged off” or “Profit and loss writeoff”, with varying dates of last activity, dates of charge off or transfer, as well as differing amounts.

According to our phone records, we were last contacted regarding these accounts by someone who would only give the name “Terry” on <some date>. This person identified themselves as representing your bank. After “Terry” used abusive and foul language, threatened legal action stating that we would “wind up in jail” for not paying these debts, and suggested that a Collection Agency would be coming to our facilities to “tag assets” (clear violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) we informed this individual that we would be filing personal bankruptcy within 6 weeks and gave him the name of the lawyer were we dealing with. We did indeed file the required paperwork on <our bk 7 date>.

Therefore, if you did transfer these accounts to someone else after this date, you did so with the full knowledge that we would be declaring bankruptcy and that these debts would be uncollectible. This could also be viewed as an attempt to circumvent the Bankruptcy Laws of the United States, and / or “punish” a consumer in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Accordingly, we hereby request that you provide us with written documentation, within 15 working days of the receipt of this letter, stating the exact date on which these transfers were made and identifying the parties (complete with mailing address) to whom they where transferred. We will then contact them to inform them that the debt they were sold is uncollectible.

If by chance, the information you are reporting to the credit bureaus is inaccurate, or, you cannot provide the requested documentation then please transmit the appropriate information to the credit bureaus to have these debts either removed from our credit reports or listed as “Included in Bankruptcy”.

Respectfully,

Me…

[LadynRed]

First of all, FUSA = BankOne, they ARE the SAME company, you're not dealing with 2 separate entities here. Several people have been fighting this same fight with them for quite some time. I know of at least 2 FEDERAL court battles over this where people have sued FUSA/B1 for this very practice.

If you go to www.creditboards.com and do a search for thread titeled "first usa must be stopped" you'll read about the measures that many have gone thru in the same fight. The problem, IMHO, is that so far, NO ONE has gotten the bankruptcy courts involved, as I believe that's where the clout has to come from. Someone needs to fight them on the 2 fronts - the FTC governing the FCRA and reporting (and the FTC has staff opinion letters that FUSA's practice is WRONG) - and the Bankruptcy courts because they are deliberately and punaitively damaging people's fresh starts. Reporting to a CRA IS considered collection activity and that is expressly forbidden by BK laws ! It has to be a 2-pronged attack and it has to be a class action to add enough force to the effort.

[poSSumX]

OK, after reading all the information on about 4 or 5 forums and dedicated websites, I think my head is going to explode.

Depressed about this is putting it lightly.

This inane practice of these firms is about to cost me ~$400 per month. I could just puke. Fresh Start, right. CH7 now seems as if it will haunt me for at least 6 more years until many of these tradeline fall off. I am concerned with making too much of a fight of it, as if they keep updating the last activity, it will never fall off.

I'm not giving up by any means, and I would really love to see an actual class action being drawn, as I would gladly join in. Individual suits against them appear to useless, as they have the bug $$$ staff counsel, and while not poor, I don't have the $$$ for endless attorney's fees.

A bit worn down, but not defeated. I will continue my fight, and watch for any class action or opportunity to right this flagrant FCRA violation.

[LadynRed]

Well, they CAN'T stay on your reports forever, and the 'date of last activity' is NOT the 'date certain' used to measure the 7-1/2 year reporting period. In fact, that 'date certain' isn't reported by TU or EX, but, I believe, only by EQ. The other 2 you have to call them to find out what the actual date of 1st delinquency is. That date cannot be changed, not legally. When your account goes delinquent and is placed for collections, that delinquency date MUST be reported and THAT date is what is used for the 7-1/2 year clock.

Now that B1/FUSA has merged with Chase, there's no telling what will happen, but since Shitibank has taken up B1's nasty practices, its pretty discouraging that they are allowed to get away with.

Lord only knows what kinds of fights we'll have once this disgusting bankruptcy 'reform' bill goes through - the Dems don't have the muscle to stop it this time

[poSSumX]

My only issue is that the date of delinquency should be 09/2003 for all, as I was current with all debts until filing.

It will be interesting to see how the new law impacts CRA reporting, if at all. I would imagine that the reform will be damaging at best to this end of the issue.

[Wilco]

Since the coporate gift of tort reform has already passed regarding class action lawsuits, I would wager that taking on these companies now would even be more difficult.

As I am about to have my 341 meeting in two weeks, I now know I'll have to pay attention to how Citi reports things after my case is closed since they're the only creditor I am including in my bk. oh joy.

My understanding is that the entire 500page BK "reform" bill is dowloadable somwhere and I'd be interested to see if reporting rules are going to change. I can't imagine the banks aren't getting everything they want in that regard as well. It almost makes me long for the robber barron days of old, since we've managed to regress even further back in such a short time.

[mmmagique]

according to something I heard listening to Clark Howard the other day, the middle class people will be forced to pay back a portion of their debts. If you are poor or very rich(?), it will be entirely written off, the way it is for everyone right now. Good thing I'm loaded huh?

Christina

[poSSumX]

Little update. BankOne, First USA, and Citibank ALL corrected their CRA reporting and sent me letters attesting to this fact....

It has now been 1 more reporting cycle, and they cam clean during that. I monitor my reports 2-4 times per month, so I can keep on this stuff quick.

My latest woe is that my FLEET Bank account, which was reporting correctly, was bought by Bank Of America in mid 2004, and just as of March 2005 they began reporting the account with a balance, past due payment, and in collection....

The fun never ends....at least I watch it and can begin my attack right away.