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Last edited by imkimssister on Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:53 am

Okay, as you all know, I have been disputing the credit bureas. as I stated, I had gotten one back from transunion for me and one back from Equifax for husband.

Well, today I got the other one back from Transunion on husband. Three items were deleted from his report. Two accounts were in my name only, yet were showing up on his report (transunion took them off equifax did not), and the third was two listings of the same account.

Okay on the dell accounts that I asked them to investigate. On the front page where it says "Investigation Results", they are showing four accounts and they all say 'new information below'.
huh? where? so I guess they're saying check under each item at what they have to say. Three of the four accounts are showing '0' balance. And under pay status it states, 'payment after charge off'.
So what they're saying is that three of the accounts have been bought by collection agencies.

Thats good right? since I haven't been able to get CA to validate any of these debts.

BUT transunion said 'new information below' on all four, but only three are showing anything different. see up until now, all accounts were showing a balance. now its just the one, which is 4,000 the others are showing 0.

also this is the account that Encore wrote me about and I asked for validation on, nothing yet. BUT they have hit my credit report twice now. THey're not on it, but they've pulled it. Once 11/04 then 7/2005. Why did they do that?

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:08 pm Subject:

They probably pulled it twice to search for newly acquired assets to threaten to put liens on. If you upgraded a car or opened up a new credit card or bank account, they'd use that as leverage to demand balance in full only and reject possible payment plans. CA's use credit reports for purposes of skiptracing and asset investigation.
I'm not a genius at reading a credit report, but the change in status you describe may be a good thing!

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:10 pm Subject:

also on the wells fargo account that I have been pulling my hair out over, transunion showed "no change-verified". This is one that refuses to talk to me and CA contacted me one time a year ago. I started making payments but they weren't cashed, until I had to get nasty and said I wanted my money back. so they cashed. I asked for a statement so I would know what the balance was and that the payments that I sent were being applied. nothing. I have written both them and wells fargo with certified return receipt letters and still nothing. I asked credit bureau what was I suppose to do to get this fixed when neither will work with me.

transunion cleared up and cleaned up some things, but now I have to continue to fight with equifax because they didn't, so these two bureaus are not showing the same thing. also more people pull from Equifax than the other two, I need to get them to show these same changes. And I guess Experian is just ignoring both of my letters-husbands disputes and mine. whew, I still have work to do. but I am getting somewhere, right?

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:13 pm Subject:

thanks Ari! I really appreciate and value your input. Skiptracing, I've seen that word before, what does it mean, actually?

So they might be pulling my report to see if I'm doing better financially than what I'm letting on so they can demand the money all at once? that makes sense. nope---I've got nothing new. definitely no new car. HA! thanks for responding Ari. shirley

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:23 pm Subject:

Anytime, hon! To answer your first question about your apparent cluster-f*** with Equifax, Wells Fargo, and Encore, no I don't think your getting anywhere based on what you're saying. I think your going in a maddening circle and you may need help from a credit counselor or financial planner. As for the other question, skiptracing is searching for a good phone number to contact debtors by. Collectors skip-trace when they recieve an account with no phone number, a disconnected phone number, a former address, or a vague reference to a place of employment.

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:29 pm Subject:

Is skip tracing allowed as per the FDCPA law? If the collection agencies view other's CR for getting the contact information, is there any permission that they need to take before doing it?

I know that the agencies who have reasons to view my credit can actually view my file, without my permission? Does skip tracing come under the same category?

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:46 pm Subject:

Oh! Hell yes skip tracing is within FDCPA! Every CA does it to find phone numbers! We use online telephone directories, SSN searches on government websites, sometimes Google! And for the third time the only use a CA has for your credit report is skip tracing and asset investigation. They can only look, not touch.

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:43 pm Subject:

okay--just for peace of mind here. I've heard it said that collection agencies can't take you to court. so if a collection agency purchases an account from original creditor, other than reporting you on your credit report, can anything else happen? I know that if original creditor only HIRES a CA to collect the money, then if they can't collect the money, they eventually turn the account back over to OC and they could take you to court. But what if CA has purchased the account? don't worry, I plan to take care of my situation, I was just wondering since several of my charge offs have now been sold to CA...and OC are showing 'paid' on credit report. So far, CAs have not validated my accounts as I have asked them to, so legally they can't report to bureaus, right? shirley

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:13 am Subject:

If your account has been sold they may report a debt to one or more of the credit bureaus, as a Collection Account, including the amount, and whether it was paid or not. Paying off a collection account will not result in the item being removed from your credit reports it will simply be marked paid. Agencies can report both debts that they have bought, and also debts that they are working on behalf of the actual creditor.If the account has been sold,they now own the account,and can take you to court.
Hope this helps Shirley.

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:33 am Subject:

A collection agency can recommend legal action to the original creditor. I do not believe the CA themselves can take you to court. They can report it on your credit reports though. Shirley, are the CA's not sending you dv letters back with the information that you requested? If not, you can file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. They do have thirty days to correspond to the letter, after the date of receipt. If you sent by certified mail, you will have proof of the date of receipt. You could always send a follow up letter.

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:58 pm Subject:

well, right now I'm not in too bad of a shape. I just have dell and wells fargo that I'm chasing my tail around on. Dell originally passed their accounts on to CAs (after charge offs). CAs wrote me, I responded with asking for validation, never heard back from any of them except one that called themselves sending validation with a carbon copy of last six payments made in 2002/2003. (this was Oxford--they're also the ones that continued to call every day after getting my cease phone calls request).
For the past year plus, these accounts have been passed around and around. Everytime I hear from a new CA, I write and ask for validation. Then I don't hear anything, a few months later, a new CA is contacting me over the same account, I ask them for validation. Its the same song and dance with all of our dell accounts. Its been several months now since I last asked for validation and I have heard nothing. I then wrote DELL CORP and asked them to help me out with giving me all the info they have on these accounts and I explained the whole situation with CAS passing accounts around everytime I ask for validation. They wrote back and said that they're no longer servicing these accounts to contact the CAs. (hello!!! did they not hear a word I was saying..CAs won't talk to me)Checked transunion credit report that came in saturdays mail, all of the accounts are being shown as '0' balance now except for one. That tells me that those have been sold to CAs. Yet they still haven't responded to my validation request.

If Dell is still holding the one account that is showing the balance on the credit report, wonder why they didn't respond to my letter when I explained the whole situation and told them that I was trying to get all of this straightened out and took care of. seems they would want to if they could. They told me to contact the CA. yet CA haven't responded to my validation request.

I asked credit bureaus how was I suppose to get all of this straightened out and paid if no one will talk to me.

oh, and is it normal that after a 'charge off', for the original creditor to still keep reporting every month? this dell account that apparently dell is still holding has reported every month--last time 12/05. yet they tell me to talk to CA.

I feel like a dog chasing his tail and I can get no one to listen to me in all of this. Credit bureau won't listen, Dell won't listen, CA won't respond. what am I suppose to do from here? shirley

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:03 pm Subject:

so on our report right now, we have a few accounts that are in 'charge off' mode, but have "0" balance on them,and they are showing as 'paid'.

And there are NO collection agencies on our report. none. And even some of the other charge offs that I'm paying on, are showing that I'm paying. so see, on one hand I feel like I'm chasing my tail, on the other hand, I could be in a good spot right now, or at least better than what I was. several charge offs showing as paid '0' balance--(obviously CA bought them but report doesn't show WHO paid them off, only that they've been PAID) AND I don't have any collection agenices on my report at this time.

shirley

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:06 pm Subject:

Hi Shirley,
If you see an account on your credit report reported as a charge off,this will mean that the creditor involved has had to zero the amount concerned in their books. It is no longer considered an asset in the company's books, usually after six months of no payments made to the account
This does not mean that you don't have to pay. They report it as a charge off on your credit report. This will seriously harm your credit worthiness. The creditor may assign a collection agency to the case, so never consider a charge off as a debt that you don't have to pay.Anyone who looks at your credit report for future credit will know that your account has been sent to collections.If the CAs havnt notified you yet,Im sure they will soon,so I would call the OC and get more info on who they were sold to,so that you can include them in your consolidation.
Anyway, the first step is to contact the original creditor, rather than the collection agency, if possible. Try to negotiate a repayment plan with them but be sure how much you can afford and intend to pay when doing this. Defaulting on the arrangement will only result in further damaging negatives on your credit report.
It may be possible to get them to remove the charge off from your report and replace it with "paid as agreed" by offering to pay a certain amount per month since you are in a consolidation program. Again, always negotiate by mail and keep copies of everything you send.
Hope this helps
Twokid

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:38 am Subject:

Twokid,

Shirley has done everything that is in the books of law. She has contacted the original creditor who is not giving her any details, failed to reach the actual CA that is holding here account presently, disputed with the CRA who are saying that she is having an account with Dell. Actually from the point of the CRA, there is nothing wrong in her CR and this is the fact.

But, the question is what should she do in order to reach the right CA? No one is coming to her with the accurate account details that will fix up the entire thing.

Shirley, you are concerned to pay off the charged off account marked by the OC. But till a collection agency contacts you with the details, you can't do anything. At least, you can feel relief that any CA is not shown in your file. Otherwise, the number of negative information in your file would have doubled.

There is a particular snag in the system at this juncture. It needs to be fixed by some laws forcing the CA to place the contact rather than coming later.