February 5, 2008
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I LIKE WRITING ANGRY LETTERS
About a month ago, I wrote about my dealings with Experian and trying to get something that was not min removed from my credit report. This was an ongoing battle, that lasted about 3 or 4 years. Basically, I would tell them to investigate it, and they would “investigate” and then say the accounts were mine. Essentially, it went nowhere, and to get them to investigate, I had to provide more evidence. I contacted the first of the two companies, and confirmed that the account was not mine. I then asked them to correct this. Three month later, and nothing had happened. Furthermore, when I tried to contact the person that I had spoken to, she was on vacation, and to this day has not returned my call. I then contacted the other company, and after a bit of hoop jumping, got their legal department. The guy there asked me to fax him a letter with some information, and he then sent me a letter that I could send to the credit company, along with my own letter. Since I had been working this issue for some time, I decided to be mean in the letter, and made a series of demands, such as them performing a new investigation on the other account (since the scenario was exactly the same), that the provide me with a free updated copy of my credit report, and that they provide me with a copy of their findings so that I could use it as evidence should this bad information appear elsewhere. (I have included the letter at the end of the post). Essentially, it was a glove slap:
This evening, I got a nice, fat envelope from Experian, with all my demands met. It makes me wish that I had done this years earlier. It also makes me wish that I had demanded cake. Unfortunately, in the exact same mail delivery, I received a letter from a debt collector for a debt that was not mine. Maybe this creditor is a nice company, and has made a simple mistake. However, I have no desire to dick-dance around with this, which means I am jumping straight to the mean-letter phase of my effort. The biggest part of the mean letter is that you must back it up with proper evidence, state exactly why they are wrong, and have reasonable demands. This allows you to close the argument with one quick strike to the jugular. Generally, life is a battle of will, and if a company thinks that you will back down, they will try to overpower you. However, if they perceive the fight to be too big, and/or futile, they stop. I will include this letter to serve as an example, and if it works, it is a good example. Oh, and the bold and underlined how it actually appears in the letter. Yes, I am pretty much telling them not to talk to me again. This serves a dual purpose: 1) I don’t want to hear from them and this prevents them from any rebuttal or fake apology, and 2) means they won’t come back and ask questions such as “do you know who the person is,” since this is not my problem. Anyway, here are the letters
——Letter 1—–
Dear Sir or Ma’am:
Today I
received a bill from you, concerning RMJ File # xxxxxxxxxx, and addressed to a [name similar to mine]. I am writing to inform
you that I am not the individual to whom this account belongs, and that this
person does not reside, nor have they ever resided, at my address. I recommend that you correct this error, and
remove my address from your records. I
also suggest that you take proper measures to ensure that this erroneous information
does not find its way onto my credit report(s).
I will
assume that this was a bona fide error, and therefore protected under section 813C
of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). However, I will treat further communication
with myself (a third party) concerning this other individual’s debts as a violation of Section 804(3)
of the FDCPA. The only confirmation that
I require that this is understood is that I receive no further communication from your company concerning this
debt, or debts that are not mine, provided that the information attesting to
such can be properly ascertained through basic investigation of the individual’s
records (e.g. confirmation of SSN, or actual name). Furthermore, I recommend that you retain this letter on file for future reference in order to prevent such errors from occurring.Sincerely,
[Me]
[My address]
[More Address]
SSN: xxx-xx-####
——End of Letter 1—–—–Letter to Experian—–
January 10,
2008
Dear Sir or Ma’am:I am writing in follow-up to your
investigation concerning misinformation that has made it on to my Credit
Report. The item in question appears on
the Credit Report under public records, reference #XXXXXXX. Because I have disputed the information with you,
and you stated that you mistakenly verified that the information was correct, I
am providing you with additional information to exonerate my report. My Social Security Number is [full social]. The [Name] for which you have placed
information on my credit report has a Social Security Number that ends in ####.Also, your investigation of the
other Public Record, reference # XXXXXX is also incorrect for the same reason
as the previous record. I am requesting
a reinvestigation of this matter, and that the necessary steps are taken to
correct my credit report. Furthermore, I
request that the findings of this investigation also be provided to me, in
order to correct information that may erroneously arise in the future, or on
other credit reports.Lastly, I am requesting that a new,
full, and corrected credit report be mailed to me at no additional charge, due
to the errors that were contained in the previous versions. Please send the status of the correction, the
requested information, and the updated credit report to the address listed at
the top of this letter.—-End of letter to Experian—–
I just realized that the back of the return envelope for the debt collector says “Thank you for responding promptly.”
Black 6, out.
