Ask me anything about your Credit Score

[SossMan]

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How do you ultimately resolve a charge that you dispute and that the other party will not remove that is on your credit report and hurting your score?

Sue? For what? The amount is about $1600. Can I do this myself in small claims?

eastbay

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If you file a claim with the credit bureaus via www.annualcreditreport.com , the other party will be required to prove that the collection is valid. If they fail to do this, the account is automatically removed. If you have proof that it has been resolved (from them or from your records) a credit pulling company can take it up with the bureaus.


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It's not that simple.

The issue is a recurring gym membership charge which was canceled six years ago. I kept it for a year or two, but have moved twice and cannot produce written proof of the cancellation. They have collected no money from me in that time. They have not once contacted me ever in that time, either, despite having a valid phone number the entire time.

I do not believe that it is reasonable for a consumer to retain written records of all canceled subscriptions in writing for the rest of their lives to defend against these bogus claims, or be held liable. Nor is it enforceable under CA law to collect gym fees if you move more than 25 miles away and there is no branch at your new residence, which is the case here. So I believe the law is on my side even if legally I am supposed to keep the written cancellation notice indefinitely (which would be absurd).

So they claim it's valid. I know it isn't. Now what?

eastbay


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I would call them and keep asking to speak with supervisors until it's resolved. Try to get to a decision maker. Quote the CA law to them and go from there. From a credit standpoint, I'm not really sure what else you can do.

[SossMan]

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Thanks again for your help and this great thread.

I was able to obtain my free credit REPORT from Experian at the website you gave. Apparently, consumers are entitled to one free report each year, from each of the three credit reporting agencies. So apparently you can request one report every four months, as long as you rotate among them.

My question is whether we can get a FREE credit SCORE somewhere. It's been 3-4 years since I obtained my SCORE. And the report does not appear to come with a SCORE.

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I don't know of any service that will give you a free credit score. There are some that will give you a free score if you sign up for their $15/mo credit monitoring service, but good luck cancelling.

Most mortgage brokers will give you a copy of your report as long as you pay for it.

[SossMan]

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SossMan thanks again for all your great work on this!!! It's been a tremendous help.

Good News and Bad News.

First, the good news is that my credit score is 734, according to Experian. That's much higher than I thought. Last time I checked in 6/03 it was only about 700 or 701. But I have been paying all my credit card balances in full and on time, and I have been paying the mortgages on my CA home for 5 years and my TX rental home for 14 years without any delinquencies.

Second, Experian is offering both a free credit SCORE and REPORT if you sign up for their $9.95 per month credit management plan. But there is a 30 day free trial, so if you cancel within the trial period, it's supposedly free.

Third, I still want to raise my score from 734 to 830. This is because my penis is rather small and flaccid. So it would be nice, at least, to pump up my credit score to compensate.

Fourth, I will keep you all posted on my adventures in credit card arbitrage. Over the past month, I have been able to get 72K in free balance transfers at 0% interest until Aug/Sept./Nov. 2007 ( And I got one additional card offering a limit of 20K on all purchases at 0% interest until Feb. 08. So that's a total of 92K so far, and the lenders are still sending me offers. It's pretty wild.

My concern is that this is going to hurt my credit score a lot, just to squibble out a few thousand dollars in arbitrage interest at 5%.

So I want to understand how to try to maintain a high score, or at least help my score recover after it takes a hit.

Hopefully I won't get hit by a car, go into a coma, and wake up 2 years from now, with empty bank accounts and ruined credit.

I currently have 9 separate cards with total credit limits of $129,800. They are from 5 different issuers, with one issuer offering me 4 cards. It's weird how they keep trying to push more credit on you.

But I am not using two of those cards with about 32,500 in credit because they have no 0% balance or purchase offers. But I won't close them. Just let them sit for now.

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Sounds like the only thing limiting your score is the inquiries and the amount of new credit.

Other than that, keep doin' it, oh flacid one.

[SossMan]

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I was also wondering how my credit score is impacted when I apply for a credit card and/or someone looks up my credit file.

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If you initiate or authorize the application for credit, it will drop your score by a point or two each time. This will go back up slowly over a few months. A high number of inquiries will result in a lower score, but it's really not as big a deal as people make it out to be.

[SossMan]

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Soss, ty, informative thread.

Is it true that nothing greater than 7 years old is seen on your credit report (specifically late payments)? This is assuming you have never had a bankruptcy.

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Well, yes and no. Specific accounts that were closed 7+ years ago as well as late payments that occurred more than 7 years ago will automatically drop off (if they don't, go to www.annualcreditreport.com and dispute them using the "too old to report" option.

Accounts that are 7+ years old, but still active, will have an open date of whenever you opened it.

For instance, let's say you had a credit card you opened in 1995. You had good payments except one 30 day late in 1997. That account would still show up on today's report with an opened date of 1995, but it would show perfect history, the late would have fallen off in 2004.

[eastbay]

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So they claim it's valid. I know it isn't. Now what?

eastbay


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I would call them and keep asking to speak with supervisors until it's resolved. Try to get to a decision maker. Quote the CA law to them and go from there. From a credit standpoint, I'm not really sure what else you can do.

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Been there done that. I went as high as they would go before refusing to go any higher. They said the law allowed me to cancel but was not a de facto cancellation, so I still owed.

I think I have to sue in small claims now.

eastbay

[SossMan]

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So they claim it's valid. I know it isn't. Now what?

eastbay


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I would call them and keep asking to speak with supervisors until it's resolved. Try to get to a decision maker. Quote the CA law to them and go from there. From a credit standpoint, I'm not really sure what else you can do.

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Been there done that. I went as high as they would go before refusing to go any higher. They said the law allowed me to cancel but was not a de facto cancellation, so I still owed.

I think I have to sue in small claims now.

eastbay

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Good luck.

[nineinchal]

What is my credit score? Even money says you can't guess it exactly!!!!!!!!