     anonymous (Credithelp) | Thursday, October 12, 2000 - 01:29 pm 
Hi All, I have a Problem! I have 2 duplicate accts on my Trans Union Report that are being reported with different acct #'s. Here's the story, I had an acct with Household Finance that was charged off in 10\95 it has the correct acct # and amount owed. I also show now a collection acct from Household Finance with a different acct # and a dollar more than the charge off amount and it's showing closed on 10\98. I just disputed this in my letter to them, and I just got back in the mail as Verified. Is this legal? What can I do from here? There should only be the orig. charge off. I never opened another acct that went to collection. |
| Erik (Erik) | Thursday, October 12, 2000 - 02:55 pm
Dispute again. Write a nasty letter threatening to sue if they don't remove it immediately. |
| Don (Don) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 04:11 am
Also demand to know how they verified the account (which you have the right to know) and see if you can get a phone number for Household. You may be able to resolve it through them. It is more work for you but it has worked for me in the past. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:08 am
I have a question here:
When any creditor charges off the account, and then sells it to a collection company, we end up with the charge-off AND the collection account. And there's NOTHING we can do about it.
So, is this what Household is doing? It is now a NEW account, in collections?
That might be perfectly legit. |
| Shylock (Shylock) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:13 am
If challenged the older charge off should do. Normally when contacted the original creditor will say (if true) "Sorry, we sold that account to XYZ Collections. You'll need to contact them at (888) 555-1212." When the credit reporting agency gets that message they'll consider the debt with the original creditor to be unverifiable.
A more difficult proposition is when it has simply been "referred" to a collection agency (normally they get 40% of what they collect). In that case many times both agencies will verify the information as accurate.
Try to get it in writing from the second collection agency who they got the account from and dispute the first account with the credit repositories including the letter from the collection agency and it should go. |
| Erik (Erik) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:38 am
I hope it's not legal to report the exact same debt twice. And certainly not with 2 different Last Activity dates if that is what happened. I guess it could be though.
I know I had a debt that was charged-off and then sold to equifax. Before the charge-off was sold it was showing up on my Experian report. After it was sold it wasn't on my Experian anymore.
The charge-off still is on my TransUnion report except that it shows that I owe $0 / with a maximum balance of $0. If my maximum balance was $0 then I fail to see how it could have been charged off.
Equifax only reports the collection.
In conclusion, if it's legal then maybe TransUnion is the only CRA unethical enough to list the account twice. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 04:53 pm
If I understand Shylock correctly, he says EVERY charge-off that turned into a collection should no longer be reported.
That has not been my experience at all.
I ALWAYS had the original creditor confirm. I've been through hell trying to get derog accounts consolidated on my mortgage clients' reports that showed 3 times.
I distinctly remember those clients, good people, who worked on their credit over a year, settled everything, with no derogs in several years. I must have spent at least 100 hours with my clients, got no loan.
In 1994 the manager at the mortgage credit reporting company said he could tell immediately that they were deadbeats, by looking at their reports. 3 unpaid R-9s/collections were really ONE, faxing the cancelled $60 check and settlement agreement did nothing. Their Credit Scores sucked and I couldn't even get those paid accounts to show as paid. They were one of my last mortgage clients, decided to quit before I'd shoot somebody.
Sorry bout that rant, but this STILL pisses me off tremendously.
And I don't recall a single time when an original creditor removed a (now collection) charge-off after the dispute unless they were no longer in biz or couldn't find the account, etc.
Is there anything in the law on this? Did something change? |
