l0max

Just an update for anyone interested: I finally had time to call up TU and get the ball rolling with them. As expected, the CSR had to "dispute the dispute". Out of annoyance i pretended this was a surprise to me and asked him if he understood why that doesn't make sense. He finally admitted that it's because their system is basically archaic. I agreed to it and he initiated the "dispute" yesterday afternoon. I decided to document exactly how long this process would take with them so I pulled up my USAA CCMP and to my great surprise, both the dispute remarks were already gone! Less than 24 hours! Just as with EX, my TU FAKO hit 574 as well. Then it was time for the real test. i purchased a TU FICO and held my breath. To my great relief, not only did my FICO not take a hit, I somehow gained about 10 points! So now I'm at a 636 even before my giant credit card payoffs have reported. I'm very happy to say I think I'm in good shape going forward. Thanks to all for their insight. Hopefully this thread will help someone else down the line one day.

Thanks. I absolutely understand the difference between FICO and FAKO. My problem is that this occurred on EX and I have no way to check an EX FICO myself. TU is a pain in the butt to have a dispute comment removed, so until I get that taken care of I won't know what's going on. I was hoping for some input on the status of a collection vs a normal account in terms of a dispute removing it from FICO scoring. I've heard that FICO still scores a collection whether or not it's in dispute, whereas it will omit other account types if they are marked as disputed. Again, I'm just going to cross my fingers that since there was never a dispute on EQ, and my EQ FICO is much higher than the FAKO, I probably won't see a FICO score change because the collection was already factored in.

I've been very cautious in each step of this process so far expecting the other shoe to drop, and it looks like it may have. I have a handfull of old paid CA's that I haven't been able to shake loose, and one big medical baddie for about $3000. It's old enough that the UW just wanted the dispute comment removed. My FICO scores from the LO were 615, 618, 632. (Don't remember which was which). My util % was around 50% for these scores, so i've paid everything down below 10% and am expecting to get my midscore over 620 that way. My FAKO scores on USAA were 574 EQ, 631 EX, and 650 TU. The dispute comments are only on EX and TU. Yesterday I called EX to have the comment removed and they took care of it right then. Today, I pull my FAKOs to check and EX has dropped to 574 as well. It was my understanding that a collection isn't excluded from scoring during a dispute like a revolving or installment account would be? What gives me hope is that my EQ FICO was still at least 615 with no dispute comments. Is this just an example of FAKO and FICO disagreeing or should I expect to take a hit on my FICO as well? Unfortunately I can't buy an EX FICO or I would. I'll have to wait and see for sure with TU and I understand getting disputes removed with them is a headache unto itself.

This is going to be a little long so bear with me. I have a medical CA on my reports for about $3000 as the result of a hospital visit in 2009. Same old story, I had bargain basement insurance and didn't know enough to know that it wasn't fully covered. I have moved 3 times since then for work and I assume the hospital notice got lost somewhere in the system. I assumed everything was fine until 2 years later I started getting calls at work. I assumed it was some JDB so I ignored them and sent a "don't call" letter and DV. They responded with a fully itemized bill from the hospital. After weeks of back and forth with the insurance company I had at the time, it seems they covered exactly zero of the bill. So, the debt is legit. However, I don't feel any sort of moral obligation to pay them $3000 for an ace wrap, ibprofun, and 10 minutes of a doctors time. But that's another story. I have sent numerous letters to the hospital explaining the situation and asking to make payment arrangements, with no reply or acknowledgement what so ever. I have sent settlement offers to the CA for 50% of the total just to get it over with, with absolutely no reply. They don't call, they don't send mail, nothing. The only communication I've ever had from them is the DV reply. But, once every few months they'll go ahead and "update" their collection notation just to keep it nice and fresh for everyone. I had just decided to live with it and let it age off, since my scores are still decent enough to do what I want to do. Now, I've started the process of getting a mortgage and after the preliminary underwriter review, it was approved with the condition that I either have this CA paid or have the dispute notation removed. The catch is they want a letter from the CA itself stating that the dispute comment is removed, not just getting the CRAs to do it. I'm assuming the CA isn't going to play ball. Plus, I have no desire to get on the phone with them or to draw their attention to me. They will know that I'm after a mortgage if I reach out to them asking for a dispute removal. I have enough cash to ask for a PFD for the full amount, but that would set me back a few months on having closing costs together. I'm fine with taking the extra time, but I do not want to sink $3k into them and risk getting nothing more than a 'paid collection'. I know Whychat has a process to PIF the hospital and using HIPAA to force the CA to delete, but to me it seems easier to just reach out to the CA and offer them a PFD. If they refuse, then pursue the HIPAA avenue. Does that make sense? But that worries me because they could just say "nope, but now that we know you have the cash, we'll just sue you unless you pay." On the other hand, I don't want to spend weeks making HIPAA disputes and popping up on everyones radar, paying the money, and then having to spend even more time wrangling with the CA to get them to delete. Either way, I'm out $3k. I'd rather take the path of least resistance. My hangup is that I want to have the best plan of attack, because I assume once I start reaching out with offers to pay, the word will get around and I'll wake the giant.

Bump

Hope the title makes sense...I couldn't think of a succinct way to say it. In my perusing I have come across several references to the idea that once a CRA deletes an item as a result of a dispute investigation, the furnisher of that information is required to notify any other CRA's they report to. I'm fuzzy on the details of this though. Here is my situation as an example: I've had all 4 CA's removed from EQ for their failure to validate my information ala the 'Dollar Bill' method. However all but one come back verified on TU and EX (different single CA deleted on each, go figure). If I understand this correctly, the CA's that were deleted from EQ are obligated to contact TU and EX and say "hey guys, just a heads-up that we were removed from EQ because we couldn't validate"?? Can't imagine they actually do that even if required. I guess my real question is: do I have any special traction with TU and EX to delete by virtue of EQ deleting the same TL's EX and TU "verified"? Other than the knowledge that EX and TU probably didn't do much of an investigation?

I agree with DollarBill's review: I wouldn't give them that info. Personally, if EX or any others doesn't budge I'd start DV or Nutcasing the TLs. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but what's wrong with sending your SSN to the CRA? I understand you'd NEVER do that with a CA but shouldn't the CRA already have that info? How else would they know if a creditor is reporting an incorrect SSN?