Isnt this extortion?

[jlmenrbjdj]

My dh and I have a collection agency, and a student loan collection agency holding our credit hostage.

The student loan company has told us that after 9 months of making perfect payments they will delete all derog info.. but until that 9 months are up they are still reporting it as late/default every month. We are in the 9th month of perfect payments.. so it should be deleted (per our written agreement) next month but in the mean time it shows every month as 90 day late/ defaulted even though it has been perfectly paid every month for the last 9.

The other is a company called Pencro. We had a mortgage with H.H.B. We were paying this loan on time, never late. (mortgage) We had to move to a different state for work but still paid the mortgage on time. Pencro called us on behalf of HHB saying that they realized that we had moved and offered to lower our payment from $1400 per mo to $800 because they knew that we were paying rent and our mortgage. We were told this was because we were good customers.

So we agreed.

We had the payment auto deducted from our credit union for 3 years.. Never ever ever been a single minute late. We recieve another call from Pencro.. an offer from HHB for us to buy out the remainder of our mortgage for $40k.. We jumped on this since our balance with HHB was $240k.

We went to our credit union to refinance.. they pulled our credit and said that Pencro was reporting us to the agencies as a new collection every month... We asked Pencro about this and they said that they would change the reporting of our history as soon as we closed the refi. They sent a letter to our credit union saying that they would change the reporting to perfect (which is the way that it should have been reporting all along) We refinanced that month and paid HHB the $40k and got the release of lien on the house.

They still have not changed the reporting. (it has been 3 months since closing) Our credit union knows that we paid this on time each month as the money came directly from them. Our credit union has the letter from Pencro saying that they would report the perfect history after closing the loan..

My question is this.. How can these two companies.. the student loan collection agency and Pencro, report inacurate information about our payment history (current and past) until we do what they want us to do? Arent they obligated to report accurate information from the begining? Isnt it illegal for them to report any false information?

What is the fastest way to remedy this? Also, shouldnt we and our credit union together take this to our states attorney general? If it is happening to us with 2 different companies it must be happening to many more.

This makes the whole credit reporting system/scoring system a sham if creditors can report whatever they want (knowingly) until you do what they want you to do. We feel like we are being held hostage.

Sorry so long

[Hal Jordan]

Well, I can't really say much about the student loan company, that is actually a fairly common thing they do. it's a good thing and not one to complain about. You're lucky they are agreeing to remove their derogs after only 9 months of paying like you're supposed to. They could legally leave the derogs on their for 7 years if they wanted to.

WRT to Pencro this is not accurate. Get a copy of the letter they sent your credit union saying they would show perfect once they were paid. Send a copy of that letter to all three credit bureaus with a written dispute as to the accuracy of the late pays.

You should also send Pencro a copy of their own letter with an Intent to sue letter for violating the FDCPA by reporting information they know to be false to the credit bureaus (their own letter proves this allegation). Give them 30 days to remove their negative listings per their own word and if they don't... file the suit against them for the violation.

[Lian]

The student loan company made an oral contract with you, and you have fulfilled the terms of that contract. They are obligated to do the same.

I would file a direct dispute with them, demanding immediate removal of the agreed information from your credit file, pursuant to your agreement.

I would not dispute this through a CRA. CRA reporting guidelines specifically state that parties are NOT to delete prior, accurate information based on payment of the debt. You would in fact be asking the CRA to become a party to a practice that they prohibit. I would keep the CRA out of the process of enforcing this agreement, and deal directly with the OC.

With regard to Penrose, yes, it is a clear and serious violation of FCRA 623(a)(1) to knowingly report inaccurate information. It is, and probably more important in your situation, also a violation of FCRA 623(a)(2) to not provide prompt notification to a CRA when information previously reported is known at a later time to have become inaccurate. They are specifically prevented, under the last sentence of section 623(a)(2)(B), from continuing to report any information to a CRA that is known to be inaccurate or incomplete. I would file a direct dispute with them, and demand immediate correction based on their flagrant violation of sections 623(a) (1) and (2). They don't have the authority to delay the required prompt notification requirement, or to continue such reporting.