Part of what my company does is to train personnel at auto dealerships how to get people with less than perfect credit financed. Obviously, a thorough knowledge of credit bureaus is mandatory. After teaching people how to do this for decades, out of curiosity I decided to pull a credit bureau on myself. I hadn't applied for any sort of loan in almost 10 years, so it never crossed my mind to even bother (pretty dim of me when that is what I teach). Anyway, I found a "paid collection" to a hospital a year ago on my bureau. There were a couple of problems with that. First, it wasn't mine; I'd never been to that hospital ever, and it was an obvious mistake.
No problem. I'd been teaching people for years on how to instruct customers to correct mistakes on their bureau, but never actually had to do it myself. Now I know the frustration some people go through!! First, the hospital reporting the "paid collection" only took 3 weeks to send me on official letter saying that they had never heard of me, and had never treated me. Great! Take that to the credit bureau and all is fixed, right? Wrong! The credit bureau said that the letter from the hospital only said that they had never treated me and showed no record of me, not that they didn't have a "paid collection" from them. What!? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif That's nuts!
If a place has never heard of me and had never treated me, how in the h*** could they have a "paid collection" from me?? I go to the hospital again, wait the required 2 hours to see someone, and plead my case. The person in "Accounts Payable" looks at me like I'm a worm, and tells me that all they can do is to claim that they have never treated me, that I've never been a patient in their hospital, and I owe them no money. Okay, armed with the new letter, I go back to the credit bureau. Guess what? Same deal!! The hospital didn't specifically write that they do not have a "paid collection" from me, but only that they'd never treated me and that I owe them no money. I talk to the head of the Accounting and Billing department at the hospital once again. I'm told twice that they have given me all they can and can do no more.
Back to the credit bureau again. This time, the person at the credit bureau tells me that it isn't so bad because I paid my bill when a collection agency got involved. What! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif First, I never had a bill there, and second, I never paid one there. Now the credit bureau gets rather smart with me and asks if I would like the entry to read as an "unpaid collection", since I claim I didn't pay any bill there! I'm ready to scream and open a can of whoop a$$ on this guy.
I finally turned it over to my legal department. It cost me $400 bucks in legal fees and three more months, but I finally got it removed. The reason I post this is because it was mentioned that there are frequently errors on your credit bureau. This is true. Getting them off may be another matter. I highly advise getting a copy of your bureau and score to check for inaccuracies. Even if you are like me, and figure that it doesn't matter because I haven't borrowed money for years and don't plan to. It will now effect your insurance premiums and who knows what all else! If you discover errors, I hope you have more luck than I did on getting them off. Don't let someone tell you that your score is high enough and it really doesn't matter etc., because it does matter!!
Sorry for the long post, but it is really important to get errors corrected. And, doing so may not be as easy as you think. Good luck and be good. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
