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Wasn't sure where to post this, as it's kind of a unique situation:  
 
- I am in the midst of rebuilding my credit. My (real) FICO is around 660.
- I needed a new car, and on a whim, applied online for a lease.
- Lease is through the car manufacturer. 
- Was assigned a delivery date, went in and signed loan docs, made the payment for fees / taxes / registration, etc.... ($~3600) and took delivery of the car.
- Got the car, and have been happy as a clam ever since.   

Got home today to find a letter from the finance company (dated 10 days ago) saying that they "carefully assessed my application and concluded' they are 'unable to extend credit, or have offered you credit at less favorable terms than you requested."  
 
Uhhhh. ....what?
 
I have reviewed the loan documents carefully, and there is nothing in them about "contingent on final financing approval" or anything of the sort. 
The letter I received doesn't make any mention of needing to return the car, or anything about modifying the terms of the contract. 
 
- I've had the car for 3 weeks.
- They have already cashed my check, and I've made the first month's payment...
- In 2 weeks, the second payment is due. 
 
Do I call them up and ask what's going on, or should I just assume it's a clerical error and continue to make payments? 
 
 
 
 

My first Shop Discover purchase failed to give me cash back credit: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=518247. So far I haven't had the strength to try to contact them about this and track down an amount less than three dollars. This should just work...
 
Now I've taken the damn card out of the sock drawer one more time to get 5% for online shopping. YES, I registered for the 5% promotion.
 
So far:
 
Amazon.com gift card, purchased directly from Amazon - Qualified
 
Chefs.com purchase - Does not qualfiy
 
Soap.com purchase - Does not qualify
 
Overstock.com purchase - Does not qualify
 
Amazon Payments (for purchase made from Amazon.com) - Does not qualify.
 
This card is a #@$^@%^$ joke.

From EXP
EXP - 662
EQ - 643
TU - 649
 
From EQ
EXP - 587
EQ - 621
TU - 588
 
From Credit Karma
EXP - NA
EQ - 639
TU - 629
 
Why is EQ so low? All the info is the same between them and the dates of the most recent pull is within a day or 2 of each other. 

I want to use a balance transfer promotion from Chase but it has a 5% balance transfer fee. Looking to get around that if I can so I thought I'd pay my spouse with paypal using the Chase credit cards which will cost 2.99% but then we'll get 1% of that back with rewards so it'll be 2% total. Would Paypal or Chase have a problem with a payment to an individual with the same address?

Hi Everyone,
 
It's been a while since I've posted although I sometimes read from an app on my phone.  This site has been invaluable to helping me clean up my credit and stay that way.
 
I just opened yesterday a collection letter from A.R.A.  They had called me last week and when I asked who they were as soon as they identified themselves, I lost cell service and the call was dropped.  
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31276280@N07/48830231176/in/dateposted-public/
 
I received this letter in the mail and I'm a bit freaked out they they gave me hardly any time to respond.   I need some help with a letter to respond to them.  I've done this before but it's been years.  I also just moved and a lot of my older stuff (hard drives, with letters on them) are packed away.  Can someone help me?
 
Thanks!

I was reading Whychat's site, and if I read it right, it says credit cards are always Open Accounts, even after default, as part of the Uniform Commercial Code.  I'm just wondering what part of the UCC says that.

I just recently paid off all of my credit cards to a zero balance and my score went up 70 points.My goal is to have reach a 770 + score on all cards so what is the best ways to increase my scores even higher and when should I start to app for at least 3 more cards I want? I need help.Thanks everyone

My credit journey has been going very well, until yesterday.  A PayPal Credit Card (Synchrony Bank) was reported to my EX report for being 90-days late, plunging my score down 53 points 😡.  However, after further review, I determined the account is not mine, has never been mine and has never been on any of my reports.  I did an Internet search on the phone number associated with the listing on my report and discovered that people were getting calls from that number regarding a PayPal account they didn't even own.
 
I do remember getting a hard inquiry from Synchrony/PPC on my EQ back in March that I disputed and EQ never followed up with the dispute.  Then I got busy and it slipped my mind.
 
I filed a dispute with Experian, and I then contacted Experian and Synchrony's Fraud Dept. to tell them both about the error.  The rep at Synchrony said he would alert the CRA's, and the Experian rep said I would hear something withing 30 days.
 
This account hasn't hit my TU and EQ reports.  
 
In the meantime, I'm so afraid of what may become of my newly approved car loan and two new credit cards 😟 while I'm trying to get this fixed.  Will I lose my car now?
 
It's either a bank mistake or someone F'ed with my identity.  I'm trying to stay calm, but it hasn't been easy at all.
 
ETA:  I just logged into my Experian account and see that my score has now increased 53 points, back to where it was.  I haven't received an official confirmation from Experian yet, but this is a good sign. 

A medical collection for only $58 has just been added to my credit report.  I am wondering if I even owe this because I pay all my medical debts right away or establish a payment plan if the amount is too high.  I have had several costly procedures in the last 2 years and noticed the various doctors and other services all bill separately.  I do my best to keep up but may have overlook this one. 
 
I think I read somewhere that small amounts like I have for medical bills are automatically removed once paid?  Is that true?  Or should I use Why Chat method to get this off my report?  

Hi, I have been a member here for a long time. Got my credit cleaned up many years ago, and genned along, running in to a few bumps in the road every now and then, but mostly staying on track with my credit stuff. However, in early 2016, I was laid off from a very good job in the oil & gas field, and I spent 1.5 years without a job. At first, I wasn't too worried, we had some savings, I got a good severance, that sort of thing, but then it took a lot longer than I thought for me to find a job, and when I did, I went from $130k+ a year to barely making $35k. Fortunately, within about 6 months, I found another job that doubled my salary, and we began to get on our feet again. 
 
During that six month period though ... we had to let some credit cards go. We just didn't make enough money to pay them, even though we tried to work something out with the creditors. When I got the better paying job, I tried again to work out payment plans, but by that time it had been six months and none of them were interested in working with us. So I thought we could just wait it out. We're in Texas so they can't garnish wages (I didn't think they could go after bank accounts, either, but I was wrong; WTH man?!?).
 
A couple weeks ago, Midland filed a lawsuit in small claims court for a Sears Citibank card. It's less than $2k. I have a real problem with paying a JDB anything; they play shady pool, as you all know. Tonight, I was served. The package that was served to me has copies of statements (first missed payment & last before CO), a Bill of Sale of the account as part of a pool (supposedly signed by the Sr VP of CB), and some other documents that pertain to the "validity" of the debt. I was about to send a DV letter to Midland and the attorney of record for the debt, but I'm not sure what good that will do in the eyes of a small claims court. I also am not sure I want to invoke Arbitration, because their Arbitration clause is pretty gnarly. 
 
https://www.citicards.com/cards/acq/empty.do?download=pdf&value=KS4m3HcZtxj5HqGENq3DUR&screenID=NoSCREENID&JFP_TOKEN=SP496QY5
 
I'm open to any and all suggestions. TIA for any help that anyone can offer. 
 
Quilty

Creditors Discount & AUD is listed on my credit reports twice for the same service: two slightly different balances, two different account numbers and open dates. I DV'd one of the accounts months ago, they validated and I left it alone. A couple months this duplicate account pops up. Original Creditor is Foundation Emergency Services. There's no way these can be two separate services/accounts. 
 
I'm thinking I should disputed directly with CRA for inaccurate info. Any strategy advice?

There's word on the other forum that Synchrony Bank is now using VantageScore 4.0 for underwriting.
 
As many of you know, Synchrony accounts ceased offering free FICO TU-08 scores back in August, offering in its place a free VantageScore 4.0. At the time, I discontinued receiving my free credit score from them, since I did not value having another VantageScore credit score. At the time, I did not realize this was Version 4.0 of VantageScore, rather than Version 3.0, which is given by Credit Karma.
 
I recently applied for a CLI on my Synchrony PayPal Cash Back Mastercard; I received the 7-10 day message. When I receive the letter, I'll verify if the score provided corresponds to VantageScore 4.0 or if it continues to be based on my TransUnion FICO score.
 
It would be an interesting move if Synchrony has moved to using VantageScore 4.0 for underwriting, as this would be the first instance of this model being used for underwriting, of which we are aware.
 
One thing which I found interesting, the major factors affecting my score that were given were (1) Lack of real estate secured loan information and (2) too many accounts recently opened. These factors did not seem to include my Chapter 7 bankruptcy, discharged in 2013, and my overall credit score was 802 (Excellent).

The only negative mark on my reports is a BK7 from 2011. I am trying to get it removed, as that would help with some business financing. It would also be nice to be approved for some of Chase's CC products.
 
I decided to dispute with EQ first and see what happens. This is the file that gets pulled the least for me. So if I ended up stuck with the BK record for the full 10 years, this report would cause the least amount of problems.
 
I froze all necessary files (the big 4 CRAs, LN, ARS, and SageStream) and received written confirmation from each before filing the initial dispute with EQ.
 
I challenged the BK on the grounds that the information is incorrect, which it is. The filing and disposition dates are incorrect, but not by much.
The dispute came back verified. So I moved on to MOV.
 
I recently got the results back from the MOV request, and the wording is a bit confusing.
 
Here is the response with my personal and the court info redacted (all bolding & capitalization by EQ):
 

So a couple questions:
Since LN is frozen they couldn't have verified with them, so did EQ just decide to not verify this while claiming they did?
If the results are that the BK is reporting correctly, why does the additional information section say that a reinvestigation is in process? This seems to be contradictory. Is EQ currently reinvestigating, or is it "verified" and they are closing the dispute? It can't be both.
 
This response doesn't seem to comply with my MOV letter since they couldn't have verified with LN, and there is nothing stating that EQ verified with the BK court.
 
What is my next move? If I can't get it deleted now I can try for early exclusion in about 7-8 months, but it would be very beneficial if I can get it removed now.

Long story short - I overzealously disputed items back in 2014, which resulted in me getting emailed from TransUnion's COO directly (see thread here Response from TU COO) - after that point I figure I was placed in "special handling" as none of the daily monitor services I was using at the time (CTT I believe) continued to work for TU.  I decided I would just let my TU file improve with age as the lates/dq fell off after 7 years.  
 
Faster forward to 2018 when I knew the derogs and BK should be off my credit file.  I requested a copy of my TU report through annualcreditreport.com back in August of 2018, however I received an error message that stated "Unable to Complete Request - Our records show that TransUnion has provided you with the Personal Credit Report(s) you were eligible to receive free of charge within the past 12 month period."   While, I felt that was incorrect I didn't pursue the matter as I thought perhaps I had indeed ordered my annual credit report in the year prior and just didn't recall it.  I set a reminder on my phone to order all annual credit reports again in September of 2019.  I attempted it again on 09/18/19 and was given the same message of:  "Unable to Complete Request - Our records show that TransUnion has provided you with the Personal Credit Report(s) you were eligible to receive free of charge within the past 12 month period." EQ & EX provided my annual reports on 09/18/19 with no issue. 
 
Today, I called TU and the repo told me over the phone that his records showed I had requested and received the report on 09/18/19 online, I advised him that was incorrect and that I was given that error message.  He placed me on hold and said "after further review I do see that you received that message. so you must have ordered your report prior to that online."  I advised him that I had not and he searched his records some more and said "I see that you last requested it prior to that on 08/12/18, but you also received an error message at that time.".  I confirmed him that was indeed the case.  He then stated that should only happen IF I had requested my annual credit reports by phone (which I have not) - but he could not search or see records for phone requests, nor could he transfer or provide me with contact info for anyone that could.
 
At this point I feel I must still be placed in "special handling" by TU but surely there is someway I can contact them and obtain a free copy of my annual report, anyone have any suggestions for me going forward?
 
 

I've opted out Sent prehipaa dispute to CRA Received verified results from CRA Sent Medical DV to CA  
Now this is where i'm confused, do i send the CRA follow up letter, now? Or wait the full 30 days in which the letter states the CA has to provide info? 

The CA received the medical dv on Friday, May 10.  This is for an unpaid account, out of SOL. Set to Fall off Feb 2020. 

Thanks! 
 
 

About a two weeks ago I mailed a letter to Equifax asking for a copy of my credit report as I do every year.
 
Apparently reading comprehension isn't their strong point. They replied back
Emphasis not mine.
 
🤣

Hello there, you guys can look through my past posts to see what the history is with this!

Basically I filed arb against PRA in August and sent them the papers. I got a call from one of their attorneys August 15th and I called them back twice and nobody answered. They never reached back out to me. AAA has sent them two papers as well and they never responded so today I got told by AAA that the case is closed.

Is there anything that the JDC can do to me now? Should I be worried? The credit isn't showing up on my report and it hasn't since it went delinquent either. 

Thanks to all of you for the help throughout my journey. 

Hello all!!
 
I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible. I used to make much more money than what I am currently making. Never paid late on my cards until recently and I’m still never more than a few days late. My cards are all maxed out and it’s costing so much to keep up with everything. I thought about going on the hardship program with my cards but I think that might have a negative affect on my credit. My utilization is at 99%.  I just don’t even know where to start. I would love to just work on getting the balances down because I feel like the hard work will stop me from charging the cards up again. I have 9 cards. And I have no lates reported as I’m never more than a few days late.  
GAP-200
JCP-500
CapOne-600
Citi-900
Walmart-1780
Macys-2700
Chase-3000
BCU-5000
Amex-5000
 
Any advice would be appreciated!!

With an upcoming refresh of the American Express Green card there are several rumors swirling about potential improvements. Right now the Green offers 2x points on purchases through the amextravel portal and 1x on everything else for a $95 AF. Yawn. 

The current rumors are suggesting a June/July/August launch bringing with it 4x on "gas" and 3x on "streaming services" with a wild card of free Amazon Prime with membership. Not awful at all if true. I'd be curious to see the caveats that will certainly come with the gas category, and the streaming services seem a little petty since I'm sure even the most die hard cord cutter only spends around 50-75 a month in service fees. As with all the other charge card refreshes I expect to see a bump in the AF to around $149 which leaves this a little underwhelming to me. If it's meant to be an intro to AmEx charge cards then it would seem to entice the everyday folks you need to include everyday expenses for instance, cellular service. Maybe free phone insurance for any service paid with the card, similar to the propel from WF. Just throwing daydreams out here. 
 
Anything you would want to see with a potential refresh?
 
Original link:  https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor-american-express-to-refresh-green-card-4x-on-gas-3x-on-streaming-more/

Hi all,
 
Wondering if anyone has personal experience with having a civil judgment made against them that then lapsed / expired. A family member is wishing to transfer property to me, but I am concerned due to a couple of judgments from the most recent recession. I know it's not the wisest route, but due to my circumstances at the time and several years following, I essentially did nothing (didn't respond to letters, people trying to serve me, etc., definitely didn't make any payments). I didn't realize until recently that judgments could be revived. At this point, I don't want to declare bankruptcy when it's almost been 10 years... I should have just declared BK at the time of the judgments but obviously wasn't educated.
 
Any help / thoughts appreciated!

I have an Amex blue cash credit card with zero introductory  plan it feature that helps you finance anything over 100$.
 
What happens to credit utilization rate if I have 1000$ credit limit and I finance a 1000$ purchase for 10 months? Is it gonna be %100-%90-%80 or %10-%10-%10?

My son in college, playing baseball was injured and sent for an MRI. They used my insurance information. I never received a bill. I was expecting the school to cover the bill since the baseball coach and AD sent him for the MRI. Anyway, we recently pulled his credit file and its showing as a collection on his reports. I disputed as "not mine" but it came back as confirmed.
 
How do I proceed????  contact the school 1st? Why Chat do I just follow your procedure?

Here's where I am.  My goal is to get my credit score to 650 for a mortgage and I currently have a 620 (after initial disputes).
 
Opt Out Done Dispute Addresses Done Initial Dispute Done I did not dispute any medical accounts (i don't have the money to pay them offc  
The initial dispute went fairly positive I would say 50% of all accounts that I have were deleted. I guess where I'm stuck is what do to next for thr accounts that were validated.  They where things like utilities and credit cards.  I'm far outside my initial 30 days and some accounts are within their SOL.
 
Thanks!

I got a letter back in June of 2015 from Weltman, Weinberg & Reis out of Ohio  saying they were trying to collect a debt for Progressive insurance in the amount of $2700. This was related to a motor vehicle accident that I wasn't even involved in. Someone was using my license plate on a motorcycle that I sold him without my permission and he had no insurance or registration. It was a pretty standard debt collection notice but I hadn't yet started writing my own letters so I hired a local attorney to send them a request for validation. They never responded to his letter but they did try and collect a couple months later. The attorney called them and advised them they were way outside the 30 days and were in violation of the FDCPA. 4 years go by and I get a certified letter saying I'm being sued by the same debt collector except now they have tacked on another $3000 making it $5700. The original incident took place in October of 2013 so we are only a couple months away from the 6 year statue of limitations. If they are trying to scare me its working and I am more than pissed off that this is coming back around again. I am going to talk to a new attorney on Wednesday but this seems to me like a clear cut violation. Then I realized the debt collectors address is now Philadelphia and that is where I have been getting dozens of calls from over the last couple months, also violations of the FDCPA. I'm also considering contacting the FTC and the BBB but I wanted to talk to the lawyer first. I kept all the correspondence from 2015 also. Does anyone have any input or advice for me?

I wanted to file chapter 13 to get out from under credit card debt. I defaulted on all the accounts a couple years ago. I’m married and my husband and I have separate accounts. His bills are current and mine aren’t. The problem I’m having is they’re making me include his income for the means test but they won’t let me include his debts. So there’s no way I can afford what they say I have to pay. Is there anyway around this?
 
 
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