can someone help shed some light?

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!

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?

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

thanks for your input Ben, I know that you have been following me from the onstart of all of this.

Quote:

I received a copy of my husbands equifax report today and our mortgage company is pulling a report every month. Why are they doing that. We are current, been 2 days late in August 2005. Will this pull our credit score down? He has charge offs on there for credit cards that are in consolidation and when I called the consoildation company they state they are receiving payment because they are cashing the payment checks. I called the OC and they state they aren't receiving payments so they made the decision to charge off the account. The consolidation company is suppose to be calling and straightening it out.

Mom of twins,
Your mortgage company has a valid reason to pull your credit report because there is a legitimate business need for them to do so. Besides, following is the list of others who have the legal rights to view a credit file.

• Your creditors
  
• Landlords
  
• Insurance companies
  
• Your employers
  
• Government bodies
  
• Law enforcement agency
  
• debt collectors
  

This brings up a question I had about mine too. How can you get some of these off of your report? It appears to show where companies wanted to 'check you out' and pulled a report to see if they would be interested in offering you credit and such? people that you didn't try to get credit with or even allow to pull your credit report?

I have some OCs and CAs on there from where they have pulled a report, I'm sure you can't get those removed, but what about the others? and is this legal? can JOE BLOW home loans or Johnnie MAE credit card company, just put your report and look at it without your consent? I have a loan with CITIFINANCIAL and they will always ask my permission first before pulling. Yet these other clowns just pull when they feel like it? thanks, shirley

John, it looks like you were answering my question as I was typing it. lol No need to respond since you basically answered it to Mom of twins. thanks, shirley

Shirley, are you aware of the 'Opt Out' Feature that you can place in your credit report. It will stop all the pre approved credit card offers overflowing your mailbox and your phone lines.

To stop all the credit card offers, you can contact at toll-free: 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) or write to the Direct Marketing Association at the following address:

Direct Marketing Association
Mail Preference Service
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512

Direct Marketing Association
Telephone Preference Service
P.O. Box 1559
Carmel, NY 10512

Oh cool, thanks John!! I very much appreciate you sharing this info!!! I had heard something or another about this a while back but didn't get the full details. thank you!! shirley

Also I have a question about old accounts on our credit reports. We have SEVERAL that are in good status, showed that we paid our bills until payoff and paid them on time every month. BUT they're old. Actually the credit bureau should have taken them off already but haven't. I was wondering if this is a plus for us on our score though, with still having these good standing accounts on our report?? They also show creditors that before our hardship, we paid our bills. I wondered if I should have them removed, but I was thinking maybe the old saying applies,
"if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. and maybe having these still on here is a good thing.

any advice here from anyone?? thanks shirley

Also had two accounts that were in my name only, on husbands report that were removed because they weren't joint. But I noticed that another credit card that belongs to me, is also on his report. But its in good standing. I've never used it once. Is this helping his score by just leaving it on there or should I remove it? thanks again, shirley

Accurate positive information can stay in the file for any period. There is no fixed timeframe for it. If it is not hurting your credit, it will be doing good only.

okay, besides this being my "400th" post....(ding ding ding---GO ME!!!!), I have a question about me and hubbys credit reports.

Heres the deal. I don't work. I'm a stay at home mom and hubby has always wanted me to stay at home and take care of the house and kids while he went out and made us a living for us, even if sometimes it meant 3 jobs at a time to do it.

So should I be concentrating more on getting HIS report cleared up first and then mine? so far I have been working on both at the same time, but I'm talking about, as far as paying the bills off? Remember my big plan I've been talking about? pay the small bills off first then work my way into the bigger ones?

So I was wondering, instead of paying the bills off that are in my name only, should I first start on the ones that are in his name only, then go to the ones that are joint, and then over to the ones that are mine only?
naturally if I pay his joint off, its automatically going to come off of my report from it being joint.

Since I don't work, his report is primarily the one thats looked at when it comes to us as a couple/family. I don't even work and haven't since like 1981, yet I have gas cards, samsclub card, home depot card, HFC loan. These are my accounts only. weird since I don't have a job or any income whatsoever. Why would these people do this? The HFC account was opened for me by them. I didn't apply, just received a check in the mail and I took it to the bank, hook-line-and sinker. dumb move. I've been paying on it for three years now and the balance is higher now than it was originally. The gas cards were sent to me through the mail already approved and ready to go-came with Lowes card. I believe I did put in for home depot and samsclub and was approved. Hey people I have no job! how can I get credit??

Just like my 19 daughter doesn't work, shes a college student and she gets credit left and right from putting down 'college student' in the blank where it says occupation, and she gets credit. she has a capital one card and a mastercard. They are for emergency purposes only. When she does have to use one for something, we pay the balance off the same month before the next statement comes out. wish I had of done this with all of 'my' bills. She gets more mail at our house than we do, and its all stuff shes been approved for. That type of mail stopped for us for a while, lately it has started back up again. I don't know if that means our credit is getting alittle better, or creditors are just getting a little more disperate. LOL shirley

Shirley, I will give more priority to your husband's credit in your situation. Although I have suggested the same point in the previous thread on which we are discussing it, I will feel happy if the total balance is divided among your as well as your husband's account. If you keep your account inactive for quite some time, it will add up with some more fees and there may be a chance of neglecting it. Why give a chance to pay the damages heavily to the creditors???

Still nothing from wells fargo on the account that I can't get anyone to talk to me about. I sent them a certified return receipt letter after christmas--asking for information and explaining that collection agency wouldn't talk to me and how so far wells fargo wasn't either. Still no reply. I never asked for validation on this account, I was asking for them to work with me on a payment plan. I don't know why someone can't just talk to me about this and tell me whats going on instead of being treated like I have a disease.

I haven't heard back from collection agency ENCORE on the 4,000 dell account since asking for validation. I wrote Dell, they told me they no longer service the account to contact Encore. so where does that get me?

Equifax shows that all 'other' dell accounts on husbands report has '0' balance, which the Equifax reported was a 'new' update. so does that mean they sold them? and collection agency now owns them? Experian is not showing it like this at all. They're still showing them all with a balance. Do I need to do anything with Experian about this because of what equifax is showing, or not?

I'm just afraid that after the letters I've wrote back and forth, that wells fargo and dell are going to just pop up one day and sue me---its very frustrating to me that they're ignoring me. wells fargo won't talk and dell is beating around the bush. Its like being a child and asking if you can go to the movies, dad says go ask mom and then mom says go ask dad and you go back and forth like this. shirley

Shirley, here is a thought, with all your documentation, let dell and/or wells fargo sue you. I would bet that you could make a good case to a judge, that you tried and tried to address the debt and the creditor is the one who is remiss. My guess is the worst that would happen is a judgement with a payment plan. You may even have enought evidence to get teh suit thrown out. Heck a good attorney may even be able to get you money.. In otherwords, you haev done what you can do, don't worry, just keep building the paper trail. and by the way... take care

Thanks JJ for the smile and the encouragement!! Both mean alot!! hugs, shirley