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     | Saturday, December 18, 1999 - 08:51 am  Lately I have had a few clients asking me what I thought of the "Ask Max" credit advice on Experian's web site. While I do not speak poorly of anyone that attempts to inform consumers, the one thing I would like to point out is the following: Experian (Ask Max) gives advice based on the views,protocal and administration ethics of A credit bureau. While some of the basic information for new learnings can be beneficial, the underlying position of the credit bureaus remains the same. They are NOT profitable when we are disputing our credit. Ask Max will discourage you in attempting to question anything that is valid. Well, that can be very ambiguous in that,the average person does not know that a tiny error constitutes inaccuracy. I wanted to make this point because getting beyond the basics will be more beneficial if you use ALL the laws that protect you and not what Experian wants you to know. The CRA spend millions each year to lobby the word about credit repair. Why do they do this? To stop the massive influx of disputes. This is not good advice for the average consumer who does not pick apart the law. Credit advice should be independant of the laws that protect us,not a brainwashing of what the CRA want us to know. I suggest disputing valid inconsistancies, but let me remind you there are many. If something awful falls off in the interum,then good! Afterall,consumers are looking for good legal arguements to restore their credit. Kristi Feathers Carreon & Associates
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| | Saturday, December 18, 1999 - 04:55 pm The purpose of the "Ask Max" credit advice is not necessarily to give good advice, but rather to supply answers to the most frequently asked questions. The hope is that people will go online and get the information rather than calling an (800) number and costing Experian to answer a question that's already been answered hundreds of times before. Credit bureaus welcome disputes -- up to a certain point. Their ideal dispute is where someone writes a clear letter explaining exactly what is wrong, and providing incontrovertible proof that it is as you say, including a letter from the credit grantor confirming that what is in your letter is the case. That way the credit repository can update their information to be completely accurate with a minimum of effort on their part. Most disputes, obviously, don't fall into that category. In fact many credit repair agencies figure they'll just dispute everything on the report once in the hopes that the 30 day period will lapse without the repository being able to get around to it and that the negative (but possibly quite accurate) information will disappear. Only once this first line of attack fails do they pull out the big guns.
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| | Sunday, December 19, 1999 - 02:28 am Wake up, Credit Reporting Agencies do not welcome disputes, they live for the day there would not be any. No dispute, no lawsuit. Do not mislead consumers, you do not have to send any letter from the credit grantor to the CRA, along with your dispute. The CRA is required to reinvestigate the disputed information within 30 days, period! Although after reading several posts here, I can see why alot of disputes get thrown in the trash can. Frivolous! If anyone of you writes a letter and says "my collection account shouldn't be on there because I paid it off" and you don't get a response, don't ask why. If you have a collection account for one minute, and you pay it off the next minute, the FCRA says the CRA have the right to report it for seven years, understand? They have to report it as paid, but they can still report it as a collection account. I sued Equifax, jury trial, and won. I did it myself, PRO SE, and I'm probably the only person in history that has done this. Questions?
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| | Sunday, December 19, 1999 - 10:50 am Where can I see a transcript of the trial?
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| | Sunday, December 19, 1999 - 08:51 pm Gary again, you cannot see a transcript of the trial Greg. Do you know anything about the justice system? Trial transcripts are made by court reporters, and if you'd like a copy, according to what the court reporter told me, for a one day trial, it will cost you about $3000.00. Still want one? Court reporters are not part of the court itself, they are their own business, and they charge for what they do. Have you ever read the transcript of O.J."S trial? Do you have any idea of how much a seven month transcript will cost you? Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean no offense at all, but I'm very proud of what I have accomplished, and what I have learned. Any specific questions, I'll be more than happy to answer.
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| | Sunday, December 19, 1999 - 10:05 pm Yes, I still want one. What court? What date? What case number? Here are some documents posted by another winner. Index page: http://www.webpan.com/pgrice/chevy.htm Civil complaint: http://www.webpan.com/pgrice/chevy_01.htm Decision: http://www.webpan.com/pgrice/chevy_64.html Your trial was seven months? I won thousands in a case against a telemarketer, and I didn't even set foot inside a courtroom. Couldn't you convince them to avoid a trial and just pay?
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 08:05 am FYI: Goin’ to the courthouse The preferred way to go about it, says Clarksdale, Miss., trial lawyer Michael Lewis, is to sue for defamation. He should know. In 1998 Lewis won a $4.5 million verdict against the credit bureau Trans Union for a client who had been a victim of identity fraud and had been unable to clear his name. The case is under review by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 08:34 am Gary: $3,000 for a copy of a one day trial transcript? Heck, we're in the wrong business. Five days a week, 48 weeks a year (let's give the woman four weeks of vacation off) - that's a mere $720,000 per year! And all you need are fast fingers and one of those little machines. Wowsers. Back to the original issue: Sending documentation is not REQUIRED - you are correct. But if you want your dispute handled quickly and accurately, then it's best to send supporting documentation and proof. Case in point: I had a doctor's office forward a $52 bill to a collection agency. I never knew about it because it was not legit, but it made it's way to my TU and Experian reports. Over a period of 1.5 years, I must have called the doctor's, the collection company and each of the credit bureaus at LEAST half a dozen times (once every 90 days or so). The doctor's office and collection company agreed right up front that it was inaccurate and would be removed. Never the less, after four attempts to dispute, I finally had the collection agency send me a letter. After I faxed the letter, the items were deleted. Up until that time, I was simply disputing the item with the CRA's, and thirty days later, I'd receive a letter stating that nothing had changed because things were verified. Two separate times the CRA contacted the collection agency (for the doctor bill) and they VERIFIED that the info was right and to leave it on! And this was when I had documentation regarding half a dozen phone calls (names, numbers, supervisors, etc) that it was inaccurate and would be taken care of. No, you don't HAVE to have it, but it certainly speeds up the process. Then again, I have since learned that, half the time, the lazy asses at TU and Equifax don't even verify. Heck, they DELETED a 2.5 year old GOOD trade line (unrelated issue) because the creditor never responded to their dispute - or so they claimed (I was only disputing the balance, which I had paid off to $0). I called the creditor - they never even received the dispute! I called the CRA back, bitched at a supervisor, and they got us all on a three way conference call with the creditor to fix things. Depending upon the issue, some things are even updated in HOURS or DAYS with the correct documentation. I know - check my phone records. While I was cleaning up my stuff before my mortgage, I was calling all three bureaus EVERY BUSINESS DAY to check on the status of my disputes. They know me by voice.
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 08:55 am I once disputed an item on my report that even though it had been closed the credit grantor continued to update it every month with 0 balance notations that made it appear like it was closed just last month constantly. All the credit reporting agency did was delete the entire thing. Fortunately for me it was updated again the very next month and magically reappeared on my credit profile, but I was a little miffed that their approach to my dispute was to just lazily delete the item. Ever since then I've been cautious about what I dispute. I never dispute anything unless I'd feel perfectly fine to just have it vanish off my credit report. I have had the best luck with disputes to call the CRA and dispute it. They respond that they'll investigate it and then I call the original creditor. They usually provide me with the information I need to support my position. Then I mail it to the CRA which serves the triple function of giving me written proof that I made a dispute, providing them with all the information they need and extending the time allowed for them to process the dispute to 45 days. I've found from experience that many of those 30 day disputes aren't handled properly. If day 29 rolls around and they haven't gotten to your dispute yet they usually a) consider your dispute frivolous and you have to start over; b) just delete whatever it is, which may not be what you want; or c) it is magically verified as completely accurate.
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 01:55 pm RCB, "if you want your dispute handled quickly and accurately" has no meaning. It matters not what you want, only what the FCRA requires, 30 days. Greg, they offered to settle out of court, I denied. In my case I was going to prove willfull, and ask for punitive damages. The District court denied that and it is now being appealed to the 9th Circuit.What court? United States District Court, District of Nevada. What date? The Complaint was filed Sept. 6, 1996. What case number? CV-S-96-817-HDM(RLH)Did my trial take seven months? No. OJ's did, mine was one day.As for a copy of the trial transcript, you'll probably have to contact Judge McKibben's office in Reno, Nevada, to find out who the court reporter was, I don't know, I never ordered a copy of it. As far as settling out of court, punitive damages are meant to serve two purposes, to punish, and to deter them and others from committing similar acts. Equifax makes over 6 million dollars a day, how much would it take to punish, one day's income, one week? How much to deter? It's worth the fight.
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 05:41 pm Although some find Equifax or Transunion to be the hardest to get along with, Experian has caused me the most problems. My profile had two accounts listed as open that really were closed. I sent in a dispute that these accounts should be listed as closed and included copies of the letters I received from these creditors confirming that the accounts were closed. Experian wrote me back and said that "We are not able to close accounts--you need to contact the creditor." When I made the same dispute with Equifax and Transunion, they listed the accounts as closed and sent me an updated profile. This was nearly a year ago and I am waiting for a full twelve months to elapse before I contact Experian again.
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 08:12 pm Just curious -- why are you waiting 12 months?
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| | Monday, December 20, 1999 - 09:42 pm I'm waiting 12 months for several reasons. I started to learn about credit more than a year ago several years in advance of purchasing a home. I thought that making another dispute in a short period of time might be considered frivolous. I've learned that from reading this board that a credit bureau can label disputes as such. There is nothing magical in waiting 12 months except that I wanted to give it enough time. As it turns out, I only have one derogatory on my report, one 30 day late payment from nearly seven years ago and it will be convenient for me to make sure that it has dropped off the report at the same time I dispute the issue of the closed accounts. I'm ready to give it another try with Experian soon. I should also mention that they placed a statement next to both accounts: "Your statement: account closed at consumer's request." Of course, the other data shows clearly that the accounts are open with a balance of zero. I have two accounts that I do make regular charges on. Does having two additional ones with no balances count against me in the credit score? There is that one code "lack of revolving balances," yet I do have accounts on which I make charges.
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| | Tuesday, December 21, 1999 - 03:53 am Gary - You said: ".. quickly and accurately" has no meaning. It matters not what you want, only what the FCRA requires, 30 days." Not necessarily true. ACCURATELY: Sure, they have 30 days, but does that mean it's handled ACCURATELY? No, it does not. Does that mean that, after the magical 30 days, you'll receive a letter that says, "All Better, Mr. Gary", regardless of what proof or documentation that you have (or have not) sent them? No, it does not. What if you receive a letter back that says "Sorry, Pal, we're not changing anything because you didn't prove anything". How does your 30 day period help you? It doesn't. What if they get a hold of the wrong department at the creditor's office, and they look you up in the wrong system that has only verifiable information about your old debt, and nothing about the fact that you worked with the company's lawyers the week before and settled the debt? 30 days doesn't help, Gary. QUICKLY? Absolutely. As I stated before, I have had three issues updated within HOURS of speaking with the CRA. (And don't call me a liar, because my mortgage company pulled my report & score again that afternoon & they were fixed). Several others only took a week. You see, Gary, they don't HAVE to use the ENTIRE 30 days. And if you provide the proper documentation or proof, then it WON'T take 30 days. That's what I mean by quickly. Can you spell Q-U-I-C-K-L-Y? If someone is in the process of trying to obtain a mortgage and finds out that something inaccurate is on their credit report, should he just call, dispute without documentation, and hope that it gets resolved within 30 days - before his purchase agreement for his brand new house becomes null and void? Or should he fax proof/documentation to the CRA and then call them? Provide accurate, informative and verifiable documentation and your disputes will be handled much, much more quickly and accurately than the no-doc-1-800-call-the-credit-bureau method.
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| | Thursday, January 06, 2000 - 09:50 pm I agree with rcb(Rbielak) on the point that Equifax and Trans Union seem to be especially incompetant (worse than Experian) in handling disputes. In one response, Equifax sent a "we have confirmed these listings" letter which stated that they had investigated and confirmed an acount (with perfect history) that had *not* even been disputed at all. =o http://www.cardreport.com
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| | Wednesday, March 22, 2000 - 05:16 am I have a bankruptcy discharged in 95 which shows an account with service merchandised discharged. My report with transunion shows the account on the bankruptcy list and discharged. In dec. 99 the same act pops up as being a bad debt and charged off. I don't think this is accurate reporting to transunion as it looks like something current instead of discharged 5 yrs ago. I have disputed it to transunion. Am I correct?
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