Has anyone successfully corrected their credit history through the 3 major credit bureaus?
|
alex c wants to know:
I have an error on my credit report, it shows an agency that has an account that is still open and in delinquent status, however the balance was settled in 2004. I sent an investigation inquiry through the experian website but still have not heard from them, this was over 11 months ago. Is there any getting through to these credit bureaus?
I have an error on my credit report, it shows an agency that has an account that is still open and in delinquent status, however the balance was settled in 2004. I sent an investigation inquiry through the experian website but still have not heard from them, this was over 11 months ago. Is there any getting through to these credit bureaus?
Filed under: Credit Reports
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I didn’t have any problems.
Did you verify that it is still being reported incorrectly? By law the Credit Reporting Agencies have 30(some cases 45) days to investigate and respond to a dispute. So if it has been 11 months you need to see what is going on. You could spend the time to try and find out what happened to the original dispute, but it might be simpler to send in a new dispute.
But this time send your dispute by certified mail with return receipt, so you have physical proof of when you sent it. Now, what to dispute depends on how old the account is. Negative items must be removed after 7 years from the date of first delinquency. That is the date of your first delinquency on the account that you settled, paying it off does not reset this time. If it is past 7 years you can actually dispute it to have it removed due to age.
Now, if it is still within 7 years, hopefully you have proof that the amount you paid was to settle the account. You need a copy of this proof in with your dispute. This proof could be things like a letter that says you paid in full, or a copy of their written offer with your cancelled check(s). If you don’t have anything in writing the company could claim that the amount you paid was just a payment and did not in fact settle the account.
If Experian still says it is valid, you then need to dispute it directly with the company reporting the incorrect information. You also need to check your other two reports, as this may be on these also.