Suggestion for fixing credit history

[boosami]

This may not be the most moral suggestion for this, but it may help your friend out.

Have him dispute the collection online (or in writing) with one of the credit bureaus as being inaccurate. The credit bureau will contact the collection agency to verify the facts. On more than one occasion, I have seen unpaid and settled collections removed through the dispute process. Yes! Even 100% accurate unpaid collections for thousands of dollars. If it drops off one report, dispute it with the others and they will follow suit. Once it's off, the credit score will shoot up immediately as if the collection never existed.

It doesn't always work, but I've seen it work (much to my surprise) too many times to ignore. Here's my theory to why this happens. In all the cases I've seen, the negative remark has been 5+ years old. Collection debt is "sold" from collection agency to collection agency over time and they may lose some of their history, data, or evidence of the debt. When the bureau calls to verify, the agency may not have enough supporting facts to report it, and must claim it as non-existant.

In case you're wondering about the legality of this for the consumer, it may surprise you that it is perfectly legal. The FCRA states that "inaccurate or unverifiable information" must be deleted completely from the credit report.

Source: 15 USC § 1681a subsection 5A

[jsk]

Thanks boosami. My friend sent out notice to the collection agency with a lawyers help. This worked and the collection agency has removed the charge. My friends credit score has improved a lot.
The collection agency was being unfair and kept adding the charges every month to make it appear as a recent issue.

Thanks everybody for all the valuable suggestions and tips.

[swaymonae]

Originally Posted by jsk

Hi
Wish you all a very happy new year.
I am posting this on behalf of friend. He was using sprint and was charged more than what he was told for international roaming. So my friend called up and told the sprint about this. Apparently sprint didn't agree and transfered the case to the collection agency. My friend wasn't aware of this, until he started getting the calls. The amount wasn't too much to pay but didn't want this to reflect in his credit history. now 61/2 years later it still remains in his credit history and when he is looking for buying a house, the rates are high. Any suggestions about to how to have this fixed? my friend is suffering for no mistake of his.

Thanks in advance
J

Did he ever file a complaint with the BBB? If not, this would likely solve the problem. Every issue I ever had with a company that didn't resolve it for me, I filed a complaint. Within a month, I was always credited.

With his particular situation, he needs to file a BBB complaint. Because it has already effected his credit, this will take longer to fix because once Sprint decides to go ahead and change it's reporting, it can take up to a couple months for that to reflect on his credit report. But within a few months of a BBB complaint, things should be better.

[jsk]

Within a month after reporting, the credit score jumped up. So didn't go to BBB.

Thnx

[myrdale]

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

Things like this piss me off. But this is also a reason to NOT have contracts.

When I purchased my cell phone it came with a 1 year contract. I did not sign a new contract at the end of that period. That was 6 years ago. I continued paying my bill on time and I have had no problem with service without a contract.

Now if I were to run up a large amount of charged from going over my minutes, roaming, etc, I am sure they would still want to collect despite the fact that I did not have a contract.

For the OP, your friend should contest the charges. I'd make the collection company prove I owe the bill. I did think these sort of things went away after seven years, but I do not know.