60 Minutes Report Reveals The Broken Credit Report System In America
60 Minutes had an excellent expose of the credit reporting industry and how Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are not concerned with fixing credit report errors.
The journalist on the story was Steve Kroft who really captured the frustration felt by so many consumers who cannot get the attention of the credit bureaus to fix a credit report with errors.
40 million Americans have errors — there are about 200… (Read more)
What is a dismissal with prejudice and a dismissal without prejudice?
A dismissal with prejudice means the case is over.
That could be because you settled, or it could be because they realize they can’t prove their case and they just drop the case. With prejudice means they cannot sue you again. We have a situation right now where a case was won by a consumer but the debt buyer Main Street Acquisitions sued our client again on the same… (Read more)
“What do I do if Nationstar is showing up on my credit report but I don’t have a mortgage in my name. It’s in my spouse’s name only.”
This is something that we see quite often. It’s when a mortgage company, for example, NationStar, gets a loan and they will start collecting against you even if you are not on the loan.
I’ll use myself as an example. If my wife is the only one on the note, the note… (Read more)
“What do I do if I have paid a medical bill, but it gets turned over to a debt collector and ends up on my credit report?”
First of all, if you paid the bill and then it goes to a collector, that shouldn’t happen because there’s nothing to send to the collector.
We don’t send zero dollar bills to a debt collector.
So if it has gone to a collector, then something has gone wrong and it may very… (Read more)
“If a debt collector credit reports inaccurate information, can the collector be held accountable?”
The short answer is yes.
There are two laws involved in false credit reporting by a debt collector: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If a debt collector knows or should know that he is reporting false information, he violates the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act).
The FDCPA only applies if the collector is subject to this law. Three… (Read more)
ID theft can be very frustrating and people will struggle with fixing it for years. Actually, you can fix it very quickly if you will follow these four steps.
The four steps
Fill out an ID theft affidavit
Get a police report
Send a dispute letter
If not fixed, then sue in federal court
Step one — ID theft affidavit
Fill out an ID theft affidavit which you can get from the FTC here. This is a sworn statement that… (Read more)