About to Start Pre-Hipaa Process - Question on Old Addresses

[Silvio]

All,

 

 

I have been doing some research on Credit Boards for a few weeks and finally registered as a member. Here is my situation.

 

Experian– 1 medical Collection for $808 for a hospital bill (I had a 1 day lapse in insurance) – Date opened 6/09

 

Equifax – Two medical collections reporting as follows. Insurance had paid their portion, but I had moved shortly after service and did not receive the bill.

 

· $320 reported on 8/2009 for a emergency room visit

 

· $26 reported on 5/2009 as a separate physician charge associate with the emergency room visit.

 

Nothing is reporting on Transunion.

 

So far, I have opted out. My next step is to delete two old addresses (both of which are associated with the collection accounts above. However, my concern is that aside from these three collections, I have an excellent history of car payments, mortgage payments, student loans, credit cards, etc associate with these addresses. Will deleting old addresses associated with the collections account remove any positive credit history associated with other accounts?

 

Assuming that I get advice to go ahead and delete these old addresses, I have read on the board that it might be best to simply call Equifax to remove these addresses or simply dispute on line. Is there a preferred approach? Please note that I have in my possession an Equifax credit report that I order from Equifax and which is one day old.

 

I have also read that is it next to impossible to get old addresses removed off of Experian report. How should I approach Experian?

 

Before I send my pre-hipaa letters to Experian and Equifax Certified mail, no RR, on paper with purple italicized font), I wanted some guidance on the abovementioned questions.

 

 

Thanks

 

[Why Chat]

All,

 

 

I have been doing some research on Credit Boards for a few weeks and finally registered as a member. Here is my situation.

 

Experian– 1 medical Collection for $808 for a hospital bill (I had a 1 day lapse in insurance) – Date opened 6/09

 

Equifax – Two medical collections reporting as follows. Insurance had paid their portion, but I had moved shortly after service and did not receive the bill.

 

· $320 reported on 8/2009 for a emergency room visit

 

· $26 reported on 5/2009 as a separate physician charge associate with the emergency room visit.

 

Nothing is reporting on Transunion.

 

So far, I have opted out. My next step is to delete two old addresses (both of which are associated with the collection accounts above. However, my concern is that aside from these three collections, I have an excellent history of car payments, mortgage payments, student loans, credit cards, etc associate with these addresses. Will deleting old addresses associated with the collections account remove any positive credit history associated with other accounts?

 

Assuming that I get advice to go ahead and delete these old addresses, I have read on the board that it might be best to simply call Equifax to remove these addresses or simply dispute on line. Is there a preferred approach? Please note that I have in my possession an Equifax credit report that I order from Equifax and which is one day old.

 

I have also read that is it next to impossible to get old addresses removed off of Experian report. How should I approach Experian?

 

Before I send my pre-hipaa letters to Experian and Equifax Certified mail, no RR, on paper with purple italicized font), I wanted some guidance on the abovementioned questions.

 

 

Thanks

 

Before you request address deletions, make sure that ALL of your GOOD inactive accounts, open or closed have your current correct address. Send them a letter requesting they update their records as you may wish to be doing business with them again in the future,( presumably all your current active accounts have your correct address)

 

Some people have luck disputing addresses by phone,

it may not be neccessary in your situation to bother to dispute them at all as it appears that your "medical accounts" are recent and the result of possible delayed or faulty billing procedures to your insurance, or in the case of the "day lapse" a glitch in the system. In that case I suggest you get a letter from the insurance Co. explaining the reason for the "lapse". If it was their fault they should have to pay the bill as they can not "lapse" coverage without proper notice.

[Silvio]

I wanted to provide an update. I have contacted all of my inactive creditors (good accounts) who had my old addresses on file and provided them with my new address.

On a separate note, I ordered my Experian report a couple of weeks ago and oddly enough I get a letter from the one creditor associated with the account above for $808. I had not received a communicationfrom them since i move from my old address over two years ago. Now, all of the sudden they have my new address and sent me a letter basically stating that I have ignored them and that I should contact them. My questions is two fold 1) did ordering my credit report do anything to prompt them to send me a letter to the new address 2) does this at all change the strategy I should use for the pre-Hippa process? The next step in the process was to delete old addresses, but I will stand tight until I get some more advice. Thanks

[breeze]

did ordering my credit report do anything to prompt them to send me a letter to the new address

 

They were notified of your new address. There are some threads in the main credit forum about these services the CRA's provide. Basically, they put you on a list of people they're looking for, and when there is an update to your credit file (or you even check it) they are notified of the activity. That's why you get all your old addresses deleted first thing.

 

The letter is a form letter, don't worry about it or what it says, just follow the process outlined here anyway.

[BigDaddyof8]

AND DONT CALL THEM(CA),TALK TOO THEM OR WRITE THEM CEASE ANY AND ALL CONTACT WITH THEM! from what I have read this person WHYCHAT knows what they are doing and has help many many people.

[Why Chat]

This is why I ALWAYS tell people to OPT OUT FIRST

 

http://www.whychat.5u.com/OPTOUTINST.HTML

 

BEFORE doing anything else. This would have prevented the CRAs SELLING your address change to the CA

[Silvio]

There is no doubt that I OPTED OUT for 5 years. I did this 6 weeks before requesting by report in order to allow enough time to go by and avoid any lag in the system. When I opted out, I used the link that you provided below. The only thinh I can think of is if one of the reports used a slightly different name (using a full middle name vs middle initial) but I am not sure if that is it. Regardless, I did opt out as instructed. At this point, shall I still move forward with deleting the old addresses as Breeze suggest, or does this alter the process in any way. Thanks

[Silvio]

BUMP

 

 

[Silvio]

Hoping to get some advice here. I just received an alert from an Experian that my score dropped about 40 points. Looks like the collection agency--which is the one that I mentioned got my new address after I pulled my report (this again was after opting out)--posted a status update. What should I do now? I am in a holding pattern since i ask a question on October 24 (see below).

[Why Chat]

Hoping to get some advice here. I just received an alert from an Experian that my score dropped about 40 points. Looks like the collection agency--which is the one that I mentioned got my new address after I pulled my report (this again was after opting out)--posted a status update. What should I do now? I am in a holding pattern since i ask a question on October 24 (see below).

I am sorry you got "hung up" on the address deletions. I suggest you call the opt out # and do it again. It is possible that IF you went on line to any of the CRA websites you may have inadvertently opted back in, ( they are VERY sneaky about this as they get a LOT of $$ by selling your data)

 

Go ahead and send the initial HIPAA dispute letters.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

[Silvio]

Hoping to get some advice here. I just received an alert from an Experian that my score dropped about 40 points. Looks like the collection agency--which is the one that I mentioned got my new address after I pulled my report (this again was after opting out)--posted a status update. What should I do now? I am in a holding pattern since i ask a question on October 24 (see below).

I am sorry you got "hung up" on the address deletions. I suggest you call the opt out # and do it again. It is possible that IF you went on line to any of the CRA websites you may have inadvertently opted back in, ( they are VERY sneaky about this as they get a LOT of $ by selling your data)

 

Go ahead and send the initial HIPAA dispute letters.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

[Silvio]

Hoping to get some advice here. I just received an alert from an Experian that my score dropped about 40 points. Looks like the collection agency--which is the one that I mentioned got my new address after I pulled my report (this again was after opting out)--posted a status update. What should I do now? I am in a holding pattern since i ask a question on October 24 (see below).

I am sorry you got "hung up" on the address deletions. I suggest you call the opt out # and do it again. It is possible that IF you went on line to any of the CRA websites you may have inadvertently opted back in, ( they are VERY sneaky about this as they get a LOT of $ by selling your data)

 

Go ahead and send the initial HIPAA dispute letters.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

[Silvio]

Hoping to get some advice here. I just received an alert from an Experian that my score dropped about 40 points. Looks like the collection agency--which is the one that I mentioned got my new address after I pulled my report (this again was after opting out)--posted a status update. What should I do now? I am in a holding pattern since i ask a question on October 24 (see below).

I am sorry you got "hung up" on the address deletions. I suggest you call the opt out # and do it again. It is possible that IF you went on line to any of the CRA websites you may have inadvertently opted back in, ( they are VERY sneaky about this as they get a LOT of $ by selling your data)

 

Go ahead and send the initial HIPAA dispute letters.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

[Silvio]

Hi All - it has been a few months since I last visited and worked on my credit repair. I had a few personal things that took me away from addressing my credit situation (which is outlined in the original email). Anyhow, i am ready to pick this up again and had a question.

 

While I opted out several months ago via the online link, you will see from one of my earlier post that after doing this and then ordering my Experian report, I mysteriously got a letter from CA at my new address (which they never had). You can see Why Chat's response as to wht that likely was. Regardless, this morning at did the opt out again through the phone service. My question is this: before I go ordering any new credit reports and than dispute old addresses, should I wait a few days before doing this? The automated voice system said it could take a few days to updaye, and I dont want to do anything that will promot the CAs from seeing that I am checking my reports, etc. Please advise. Thanks

 

 

[Why Chat]

Hi All - it has been a few months since I last visited and worked on my credit repair. I had a few personal things that took me away from addressing my credit situation (which is outlined in the original email). Anyhow, i am ready to pick this up again and had a question.

 

While I opted out several months ago via the online link, you will see from one of my earlier post that after doing this and then ordering my Experian report, I mysteriously got a letter from CA at my new address (which they never had). You can see Why Chat's response as to wht that likely was. Regardless, this morning at did the opt out again through the phone service. My question is this: before I go ordering any new credit reports and than dispute old addresses, should I wait a few days before doing this? The automated voice system said it could take a few days to updaye, and I dont want to do anything that will promot the CAs from seeing that I am checking my reports, etc. Please advise. Thanks

I think the "cat is out of the bag" on your address.

Send the initial dispute letter to each CRA where any medical account is reporting, list all medical accounts as they are appearing on the report you are disputing.

http://www.whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

[Silvio]

Thanks Why Chat. While the cat is out of the bag regarding Experian and the one CA who is reporting to them, I dont think the cat is out of the bag regarding the Equifax report--which has to other CAs reporting to them. My game plan was to remove the old addresses from Equifax, since that has 2 of the 3 CAs reporting on my report. Since I opted out over the phone on Monday, I wanted to know if I should now go ahead and either 1) call Equifax to have the old addresses removed or 2) send them a letter instead. Also, I provided all of my active and inactive good accounts with my updated address. There are about 5 accounts, however, that havent reported in several years. These include old mortgages, old credit cards, etc. If they havent reported in several years, I am assuming that I dont need to try to contact them--since they are not impacting my report at all due to non activity on their part. Thank you

[Why Chat]

Thanks Why Chat. While the cat is out of the bag regarding Experian and the one CA who is reporting to them, I dont think the cat is out of the bag regarding the Equifax report--which has to other CAs reporting to them. My game plan was to remove the old addresses from Equifax, since that has 2 of the 3 CAs reporting on my report. Since I opted out over the phone on Monday, I wanted to know if I should now go ahead and either 1) call Equifax to have the old addresses removed or 2) send them a letter instead. Also, I provided all of my active and inactive good accounts with my updated address. There are about 5 accounts, however, that havent reported in several years. These include old mortgages, old credit cards, etc. If they havent reported in several years, I am assuming that I dont need to try to contact them--since they are not impacting my report at all due to non activity on their part. Thank you

OK

[Silvio]

do you recommend calling Equifax to remove the old addresses or sending a letter? I have seen it posted both ways on this board. I have seen that people had success calling equifax and having the old addresses removed, but I dont want to do a misstep here. I was going to call them and basically tell them that I would like old addresses removed to ensure that I dont have people receiving credit card offers, etc in my name

[Silvio]

do you recommend calling Equifax to remove the old addresses or sending a letter? I have seen it posted both ways on this board. I have seen that people had success calling equifax and having the old addresses removed, but I dont want to do a misstep here. I was going to call them and basically tell them that I would like old addresses removed to ensure that I dont have people receiving credit card offers, etc in my name

 

 

Bump on this - I ordered a copy of my Equifax report last night through Equifax and am ready to move into address deletions. Here is the scoop. I have 5 old addresseses on my report, one of which is associates with two of the medical collections. My question is two fold.

 

1. Should I dispute all old addresses either a) online, via phone, c) by mail? I have seen successes posted on this board with each method when it comes to equifax

2) Should I go ahead and dispute all old addresses, or really focus on the one associated with the collection? Not sure if the method I use (phone, online, or mail) should influence how many I dispute. I know the recommendations on this board is to dispute all old addresses.

 

I have off of work this morning, so I am trying to get this done ASAP. Would appreciate any feedback!

[Why Chat]

do you recommend calling Equifax to remove the old addresses or sending a letter? I have seen it posted both ways on this board. I have seen that people had success calling equifax and having the old addresses removed, but I dont want to do a misstep here. I was going to call them and basically tell them that I would like old addresses removed to ensure that I dont have people receiving credit card offers, etc in my name

 

 

Bump on this - I ordered a copy of my Equifax report last night through Equifax and am ready to move into address deletions. Here is the scoop. I have 5 old addresseses on my report, one of which is associates with two of the medical collections. My question is two fold.

 

1. Should I dispute all old addresses either a) online, via phone, c) by mail? I have seen successes posted on this board with each method when it comes to equifax

2) Should I go ahead and dispute all old addresses, or really focus on the one associated with the collection? Not sure if the method I use (phone, online, or mail) should influence how many I dispute. I know the recommendations on this board is to dispute all old addresses.

 

I have off of work this morning, so I am trying to get this done ASAP. Would appreciate any feedback!

I always suggest doing it by mail together with proof of your identity and your current address. I also suggest stating that the reason you wish to delete xxxx address (s) is because you are concerned about ID theft/fraud. This MIGHT engender a 90 day fraud alert, however I think a fraud alert helps rather than hurts the dispute proccess.

[Silvio]

I am fine with the fraud alert. There is one other question........while I was able to provide my updated addresses to old good accounts that are no longer reporting, I wasnt able to to reach some of them. If it says on my report that the account hasnt reported since 2007, is it safe to assume that my credit history related to this account will not get deleted in any shape or fashion by virtue of me disputing an old address attached to this account? Again, each of the accounts in question havent been reported since 2006/2007.

[Silvio]

Hi All - I wanted to provide everyone with an update.

 

Equifax - disputed 5 old addresses with them through mail a few weeks ago and just got a letter from them that they were all removed. Since two medical collection accounts are tied to one of these old addresses, I sent the initial dispute letter (listing both accounts as they appear on my equifax report) certified mail yesterday. I will report back once I get a response

 

Experian - since the one collection account reporting on my Experian report already had my new address and updated their file, I sent the initial dispte letter to Experian certified a little over a week ago, as Why Chat suggested. Yesterday, I receive a one page form letter in the mail that says "If you question the results of our dispute process, then you may want to contact the furnisher of informtion directly and review the orignal information or public record. Please refer to your original personal credit report for the furnisher or public records office name, address, and phone nu,ber (if availabe).

 

When I go on the Experian website, it shows that this item is currently being investgated--therefore I assume that the letter I just received is more of an automated response one receives when I dispute is sent in? Just want to check to ensure there is nothing else I should be doing and that I should wait until I receive another letter from them once the dispute process has concluded. Thanks

[Silvio]

BUMP Please

[Why Chat]

Hi All - I wanted to provide everyone with an update.

 

Equifax - disputed 5 old addresses with them through mail a few weeks ago and just got a letter from them that they were all removed. Since two medical collection accounts are tied to one of these old addresses, I sent the initial dispute letter (listing both accounts as they appear on my equifax report) certified mail yesterday. I will report back once I get a response

 

Experian - since the one collection account reporting on my Experian report already had my new address and updated their file, I sent the initial dispte letter to Experian certified a little over a week ago, as Why Chat suggested. Yesterday, I receive a one page form letter in the mail that says "If you question the results of our dispute process, then you may want to contact the furnisher of informtion directly and review the orignal information or public record. Please refer to your original personal credit report for the furnisher or public records office name, address, and phone nu,ber (if availabe).

 

When I go on the Experian website, it shows that this item is currently being investgated--therefore I assume that the letter I just received is more of an automated response one receives when I dispute is sent in? Just want to check to ensure there is nothing else I should be doing and that I should wait until I receive another letter from them once the dispute process has concluded. Thanks

There is nothing else you need to do other than to exercise some patience.

[Silvio]

Not sure if I inadvertenly messed something up her, but the other day I went on th Equifax website and wanted to check something else out on my report. I get an email today saying that they one of two collection accounts that I disputed via certified mail is now being reinvestigated. (see sample email I received below). The funny thing is that the second collection account I disputed via certified mail (both collection accounts were in the same email) doesnt show any investigation occuring. I wonder if I accidently hit dispute online for the one account. I dont think I did but it is just strange that this happened. My question is: should I not do anything else at this point until I get the results back?

 

Your most recent Equifax reinvestigation has been started. This process can take up to 30 days to complete. For faster delivery of your results, you can now receive the results of your investigation online.

To accept receipt of the results of your investigation online, please click on this hyperlink:

 

(Gives website to get the resuls sent elecronically)

Any reinvestigation that you have created within the timeframe of this request will be available for your review online upon completion.