Dazed and Confused! (can you tell I'm new?)

[loobyloo]

Hi everyone-
I've been lurking here for a while and just joined. I've read through the forums and have gotten a real education in the last week or so. I've opted out of what I could. EX won't let us change info on the phone so I have a letter going out to them today but EQ and TU both allowed us to delete all personal info except current addy and name online.

This is what's showing on my CR:

Collection 1- a traffic ticket I received in 95. I know I paid this, because I was traveling for work and my mail service forwarded me a warrant for my arrest! I flipped out and sent the payment. I rec'd a letter from the CA in Feb 09. When I called the collection agency and said I paid it they said prove it. However, we've moved across the country and before our move we had a ton of old records shredded. Guess what was in those records- yep, proof of payment. I called the court house in the town the ticket was issued and no one responded to me. I sent the CA a debt validation letter, March 2, they sent back nothing within 30 days. I contacted the BBB and the AG of the CA's State. I got a letter from the BBB with the CA's statement stating I repeatedly called harrassing them etc and would verbally abuse them etc. I wrote back to the BBB, CA and AG saying as per the letter I sent I only wanted to communicate with them via USPS and why would I call? Long story short- I was forwarded another letter by the BBB with statement from CA saying I was such a pain in the a## they were going to close my account and remove it from the CRA. They haven't.

Should I send a copy of this communication from the BBB to the CRA when I dispute this?

#2- I disputed 3 TL's from the same CA two showing paid one showing open (funny they are all the same account!!) for a hospital bill. I paid the bill in Dec. 31st. The OC sent the bill to collection Jan 10 (the check cleared 1/4) I sent DV letter to CA, along with a request to contact me only via USPS. I've received nothing from them and they've continued to call- I have kept a record of the dates and times but no pictures of Caller ID- I figure I can get my phone records if push comes to shove. The OC says I owe nothing. I've put another call in to their office today to see why the CA is showing one TL still owing. I've NEVER paid the CA, only the OC/hospital. I did dispute it with the CRA's and all three are showing it 'disputed by consumer- meets FCRA requirements' What does that mean? How should I go about disputing this as 1. It's medical and when I disputed the debt I didn't send the pre-hipaa letter?

We want to refi our home asap and I want to get these things removed! Thanks so much!

[loobyloo]

I managed to get through to someone in the billing department of the OC ofproblem #2 (see above) and she told me I needed to call the CA directly because she can't see that I have any balance on my account. I asked what the purpose of calling the CA would be since they haven't answered my DV letter. She said the CA was the only one who could remove the account from my CR and that I had to call them to instruct them to call the OC.

I sent out letters today to EX, disputing an old charge off, Problem #1 (see above) and another old parking ticket that was paid and is showing up as an old collection on my EX report, and an old paid CC that's reporting paid after charge off (it was paid prior to charge off) . I noticed there is yet another medical collection on my EX report. Can I send a pre-HIPAA letter to them?

I'm floundering here and could use some help, advice, good recipes to use up all these stupid apples my co-op keeps giving me- just seeing if anyone's reading...

My husband's report is in much better condition and I've sent out letters disputing a couple of things as well as a goodwill letter for a couple of late pays.

I feel helpless and hopeless and like the refinance won't happen and we'll be stuck paying out the rear for our home....

[loobyloo]

Can anyone help? Please?

[chane]

The first step is disputing everything with the CRAs. Sometimes they will use stall tactics and they won't go through. Make sure they do and maybe even send a second letter asking for method of verification for anything they verified.

Once you've done that, THEN you can start dealing with the OCs and CAs that verified it individually. There is no reason to contact any of them unless they have verified an account. It sounds like maybe you started doing that first, but I'm not really clear on that. Did you send dispute first?

If so, did you get them back yet? Did anything get removed? What got verified?

[loobyloo]

HI Chane-
Thanks so much for the response. Months ago, before finding this site I sent DV letters to the CA's and then the CRA's (backwards I have found out from reading this site). My CR's now note that the medical collections are "disputed by consumer- meets FCRA requirements". The slimey thing is this is actually one account that they've recorded 3 times with 3 different amounts. And the OC says I owe nothing but they can't do anything.

I redisputed yesterday with Experian but haven't with the TU or EQ yet. Waiting to see what advice I got here.

The ticket issue is so frustrating, especially since that CA said they'd take it off my CR in a letter to the BBB. Should I send that to the CRA? It was part of the dispute I sent out yesterday (they are only reporting it to EX)

[chane]

No, don't send them that, it could end up hurting more than helping. You want to make them verify that the accounts belongs to you. If they think you paid it, then they know it's yours.

Just wait for the disputes to come back and take it from there.

[loobyloo]

Okay, great, thank you I'll wait on the ticket. What about the medical collection that is reporting the same account three times. It's coming back as I said as "disputed by consumer- meets FCRA requirements", but I'm not sure what that means- I never received anything from the CRA that stated it was verified- what should I do?

[chane]

It means you disputed it and it came back verified. Did you dispute it with a CRA? If so, and it came back verfied you should have received a notification letter from the CRA saying that it was verified.

[loobyloo]

Nope, no letters, nothing from any of the 3 cra's. that's what has me confused.

[loobyloo]

I went back through my records and did some reading online the CA is the one who marked the account in dispute with the CRA's because on my TU report it says 'consumer disputed account- reported by subscriber' according to my records I only sent the DV to the CA not the CRA's. Should I send the pre-hipaa letter?