Why Can’t I Get my Inaccurate Credit Report Fixed?
Most people expect that if they have something inaccurate on their credit report that they should be able to get the inaccurate credit report corrected. Congress expected that too, but as time passed and the Fair Credit Reporting Act aged, the companies that investigate credit report disputes adjusted their procedures. If you ask the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs) like Equifax, TransUnion or Experian about inaccurate credit reports, they will say that they are trying to keep credit files accurate, and that numerous instances of credit repair clinics has made them adjust their practices. No doubt they receive millions of false complaints and disputes from these clinics and credit dispute mills that promise to clean up bad credit that is otherwise accurate. The problem is that the disputes from consumers with real inaccuracies are not being processed properly and those people cannot get their credit files corrected.
Credit Dispute Volume is Unmanageable
If you ask credit lawyers that do this full time (like us) they will tell you it is all about the money. The volume of disputes is so high and the cost to process them properly is so expensive that the big three CRAs have outsourced most of the entire process. They do not even open their own mail! When a consumer submits a written dispute letter, an outsourced company opens that letter, scans the contents, and sorts it by type of dispute. A different company in India, Costa Rica, Chile (etc.) will process the dispute for the CRAs and forward it to the furnisher or company that is reporting the inaccurate credit file data. For the most part, these outsourced processors do not make independent decisions to correct account file data and simply forward it to the furnisher and let them make the decision.
Inaccurate Credit Reports Can Benefit the Collection Agent
Furnishers like Discover Card have an even bigger incentive to cut corners and verify that disputed credit file data is accurate. Consumers with an inaccurate Discover Card account or an identity theft Discover card account may not receive the type of investigation that they would expect. Not only are furnishers like Discover Card dealing with huge volumes of disputes each day and must hire hundreds of people to process these disputes as quickly as possible, but they do not want to correct the data because they want to use the negative credit reporting to force even innocent consumers to pay the debt just to get an unpaid, charged-off balance off their report. This is a practice that experts in credit reporting law call “parking.” Because the inaccurate account is parked on the credit report to force payment.
Most consumers would be shocked to learn that some furnishers verify as many as 99% of all identity theft disputes as being accurate. Furnishers know that most consumers won’t take action or do anything and ultimately will pay the debt so that they can be approved for a home mortgage or retain a security clearance. Blankingship & Christiano knows what these CRAs and furnishers like Discover Card are doing and we fight for you. Not only do we correct erroneous credit file data, but we also sue the CRAs and furnishers for the violations of the FCRA. Knowledge is powerful and you don’t have to be a victim, call B&C.
If you have an error on your credit report and need legal help getting it corrected contact the Virginia Credit report error lawyers at Blankingship & Christiano, P.C. (571) 313-0412 or fill out our contact form to discuss your case.
