     Alissa Privitera (Mali) | Tuesday, June 06, 2000 - 07:13 am 
I had a checking acct. with First Union in college and I bounced too many checks so they closed the acct. I owed them nsf charges and later paid them but I settled with them for less than the actual amount owed. This was in October of 1992 and is listed as such on my Equifax report. It is listed as an R1 HOWEVER it says "paid settlement" under it. I wrote to Equifax and explained this was paid over 7 years ago and to please delete it. I got a standard response back ("once an acct has been opened the acct may appear on the credit file for 7 or 10 years from the date of last activity"). I called and spoke with someone at Equifax and he told me that it won't be taken off until 10/02 because positive items could stay on for 10 years. When I explained to him that it could be perceived as negative because of the "paid settlement" notation he said they only go by the status (R1). I was so surprised I just said okay and hung up like a moron. Is this possible? It doesn't seem fair b/c it just seems like a way to get around the 7 year thing. Is there anything I can do? Also, I just want to say I am so happy I found this board because I was clueless about this stuff before. I also can't believe that standard statement they put on my investigation results. I mean, technically the 7 years doesn't go by date of last activity, right? It goes by charge-off date I thought. They obviously don't want people to know the truth. |
| Michael Bardelli (Bull22) | Thursday, June 08, 2000 - 04:24 pm
Of course they don't want you to know the truth. It is like Fox Mulder and Dana Scully chasing aliens, they start to get close and before you know it, the rules change again. The credit bureaus will do whatever it takes to keep info out of the public domain so that they can go on ripping us off. I had no idea that bounced checks could be reported to credit bureaus. It is kind of unfair since those that use checking accounts correctly don't receive a positive mark on credit reports for that. This whole system is really screwed up!! |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Thursday, June 08, 2000 - 06:31 pm
The guy at Equifax lied. It's over 7 years and needs to be removed from your report.
I suspect you there is NO DATE or an incorrect date next to the "Paid settlement" notation, otherwise it wouldn't be there. NO DATE will result in the assumption that it was settled the last time the account was reported, probably last month.
THAT is really bad for your Scores as well as manual underwriting. |
| Alissa Privitera (Mali) | Friday, June 09, 2000 - 07:37 am
Believe it or not the date of last activity actually says 10/92 which is correct. It should have gone off in 10/99. The guy at Equifax basically had the attitude that it was over 7 years old but it doesn't matter because the status is R1 so it can stay on for 10 years. However, I know that is crap because it says in bold "Settlement accepted on this account" which obviously doesn't look good. Should I just write another letter saying the same thing or should I highlight part of the FCRA or what?
Oh and by the way I kind of agree Michael-I have a checking acct. with First Union now (for the past few years)and it isn't like they are reporting my positive activity on it. |
| Alissa Privitera (Mali) | Friday, June 09, 2000 - 07:40 am
Wait..Christine, do you mean there should be a separate date by the notation "settlement accepted on this acct."? Because there is nothing next to that but the date of last act. does say 10/92. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Friday, June 09, 2000 - 11:52 am
The date of the settlement is the important date. One could argue that that the settlement would be the last activity, all the more reason to remove it.
If you call again, I highly recommend you TAPE the conversation. Advise right away that you are recording in case of future legal action and you might just get much better results.
Advise that they are violating the FCRA and that a settlement is a NEGATIVE entry. You might want to read or fax this posting to Equifax.
If they refuse to remove the settlement notation hire an attorney and sue.
Already you have wasted a lot of time on this, you alerted Equifax to their mistake, they demonstrated INCOMPETENCE and if they now continue to damage your credit and you deserve at least $1,000 plus your legal fees. |
