Hi everyone. I just started visiting the site a few days ago and have been browsing through many of the posts and articles. This is a great and very informative site. Thanks to all who have contributed.
Here's my question:
I have four CC accounts that were charged off in late 98 and early 99. However, these were cards I acquired in college in 92 and 93, and which became delinquent in 95. In 1996 I entered a credit counseling service (big mistake!!) and paid into that for a year. After a year I realized that the service had been holding my payments to them for a month and then sending out payment to the CCs, thereby incurring late and over limit fees each month, and increasing the amount of money owed (by about 2K). In 97 I stopped the service. From 97 to 98 I made "some" payments on the CCs, but never enough to cure the delinquencies. (I'd send a min payment here and $100 there, but never anything substantial or consistent). In 98 and 99, the CCs charged off the debts. (The total debt is about 5K.)
After reading the FCRA and the FTC opinion letters, I am wondering how long these charge offs should be reported on my credit report. Under the 96 amendment to 605, the charge offs can be reported for 7 years, starting 180 days after the initial delinquency. But this only applies to items reported after 12/97. For items placed prior to that, it is 7 years from the date the item is reported.
Based on this, since my charge offs were reported in 98 and 99, I think they fall under the new rule (7yrs +180days from initial delinquency). If thats the case, then shouldn't they come off 7yrs+180days after the initial delinquencies in 95? But Experian has them coming off 7 years after the charge off dates in 98 and 99 (roughly in 05 and 06).
Should I dispute this with the CRAs? Or should I get validation from the CA/OCs first?
Also, I am a licensed attorney, and would not think twice about filing a suit in my own name against any of the CRAs in small claims court, or even circuit or fed court for that matter, for FCRA violations. (I'm thinking of disputing the items as obsolete, requesting verification from the CA/OCs, and then challenging any of the items that aren't removed.)
One problem though, is that I don't have any of the records from way back in 95 and such (because I was a dumb college student instead of just a dumb lawyer). Thus, I don't have any evidence of when the accounts initially went into delinquency. However, if I filed suit and named the CA/OCs, I could use the discovery process to get full records for all the accounts. Would that be a good idea as well? (Assuming I couldn't get the deletions prior to trial via settlement.)
I've paid more than enough to these creditors during the 90s to more than make up for any actual purchases plus interest equal to 2 times the principle. I don't think they deserve anymore. Nor do I think I should have to wait another 3 years for my credit to be clean.
Any answers or adivce would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for a great site.
same problem with me?
I had student loans from Citibank. I was young, maybe 20 years old and I couldn't always make the payments like I wanted to. When I was working, I'd make payments - sometimes even double payments trying to catch up.Eventually they were defaulted and went to California as the guaranteeing agency. They had someone contact me and, at the time, I was flush. I cut them a check for the full amount and considered the matter settled.A few years later, I decided to get some credit and low and behold I had three paid collections on my credit profile. I disputed them and they came back verified.After some research into the FCRA I requested and got my payment history out of Citibank and managed to prove that more than seven years had passed from the FIRST date of delinquency. Realize, of course, that the first date of delinquency was back in 1992 - long before the 1996 amendment for the FCRA.The credit repositories accepted that and deleted the items. A happy ending.