     Erik (Erik) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:02 am 
I have an old charge-off account that was bought by Equifax Risk Management. Has anybody dealt with these people before? Will they negotiate to remove the item from my credit report? I'm a little hesitant to contact them since they are reporting the debt as older than it actually is. I would hate to call them and have them say they won't remove it and then have them realize they should be reporting the last activity date as being later. |
| Shylock (Shylock) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:05 am
Equifax Risk Management normally buys accounts, often from Sears, and tries to collect on them. The advantage of that is that it's likely to only be reported on your Equifax profile and not on your Trans Union or Experian profiles.
I do not know of anyone who's tried to negotiate with them, though. All I can suggest is that you try it and see what you come up with. They also sometimes go under the name ERM or RMS (Risk Management Services). |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:16 am
I have no actual experience with them, but considering WHO they are, I'd expect it to be EXTREMELY unlikely that they'd remove the collection from your credit. |
| Erik (Erik) | Friday, October 13, 2000 - 11:46 am
That is what I kind of think too Christine. It seems kind of like a confict of interest for them to be both a CRA and a collection agency. If that debt is being reported after the 7 year mark I'll just assume it's because the CRA division is looking out for the collection division. Not that I'll be able to do anything about it or anything. At least I'll have the satisfaction that I never gave them any money for that debt they bought. |
| Shy Guy (Shyguy) | Wednesday, October 25, 2000 - 05:42 am
What's worse is that Equifax Risk Management doesn't even report accurately to Equifax. I had an old American Express debt that was bought by Equifax Risk Management. (That was the event that finally convinced me to file Chapter 7.) While that debt -- of course -- was discharged, that's not how it's listed on my Equifax credit report, which says Risk Management was "unable to locate consumer." Luckily, it's only on my Equifax report, and my attorney is disputing it. |
| June Logan (Junel) | Wednesday, October 25, 2000 - 10:57 am
I used to work for Equifax Risk Management. Equifax sold this division to Risk Management Alternatives last year. 1st, dispute this item with Equifax by sending them a nice letter stating the account is "unknown". More than likely, if the account is old, it will be in their archived files and they will not be able to confirm it. If it remains on your file, Risk Management Alt. will negotiate a settlement including removing this from your file. Let me know if I can help and if this works! |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Wednesday, October 25, 2000 - 03:04 pm
June, appreciate that info, that's nice to know! |
