Question On Credit Report

[jyl]

Quick question on credit reporting -

If you are in a civil dispute in which someone claims you owe them money, but the claim does not arise from a credit transaction (not a bank loan, credit card, car loan, or anything similar), can they place a negative statement on your credit report?

Assume the dispute is employment-related, in the nature of relocation costs that the employer claims should be repaid due to the employee having left the job within a certain period.

Any thoughts, or pointers for where to look for the answer, would be helpful. Thanks, all.

[Zeke]

A member of the public is not able to place information in your file. Only businesses with an account or public agencies. The question you have to ask, is this a collectible debt and are they members of the credit reporting services? Otherwise, it is my information that they will have to obtain a judgment before this information will come out.

[Dantilla]

Originally posted by milt
they will have to obtain a judgment before this information will come out.

If they get a judgement against you, they can then turn it over to a collection agency. The collection agency will immediately place it on your credit report.

[RANDY P]

Originally posted by milt
A member of the public is not able to place information in your file. Only businesses with an account or public agencies. The question you have to ask, is this a collectible debt and are they members of the credit reporting services? Otherwise, it is my information that they will have to obtain a judgment before this information will come out.

+1. But on the loan application you have to declare that you are involved in a lawsuit.

Maybe they notice, but they probably won't.

rjp

[jyl]

I doubt the sum involved is worth filing suit over. Thanks, all. Just trying to figure out where the leverage is, and who has it.

[john70t]

The leverage is definitly in the hands of the filer.

A short personal story:
Back in 1990 I shared a 2 bedroom apt with a couple other people and we ended up not getting along(slackers). 5 months into it, one quit his burger job and moved out, and the other wanted to keep the appt. with another roomate.
I got a writen o.k. from the (outgoing from maternity leave) property manager to quit the lease, paid a $380 early-termination fee, repainted their damage, and left.

Three years later I applied for a credit card and found the complex had stuck my credit report with a $3,800 debt. The other roomate had apparently moved out after I left(as I suspected), but there had been lights on at night so someone was living there. Met with collections but they were firm on sticking it to me.I had received no notice to contest it/appear and had lost their paperwork.

Over 10 years later on, I still couldn't get a Sears card or a union credit card to build up my credit again. Auto loan? Mortgage? Nope. It was still on TransUnion's report.
I tried to contest it twice, but they wouldn't even send me a report or forms because "my address wasen't registered" (even after living 5+ years at the same address with bank accounts/utilities in my name).


Pure economic slander. I'll never pay loan interest to major banks again(if I can help it).

[Rick Lee]

Hmmm. Now I'm wondering how I can file a dispute with the three credit reporting agencies. My old cell phone bill dispute has been turned over to a collection agency and they got me once on the phone. I told the guy he could write that one off and not to waste his time chasing me, that I had already paid one early termination fee and that was all I was paying. I'm sure they're able to put this on my credit report, but I'd like to get a note in there too that I vehemently dispute the charge and never ever agreed to pay more than the early termination fee I already paid.

[Zeke]

Everyone is entitled to submit a 100 word or less statement of any kind to be inserted in your report whether the issue was resolved or not.

john70t, you could have fixed your credit with an explanation of this type plus a filed dispute. When you dispute or contest a credit entry, the credit reporting agency HAS to send out a letter to the original creditor asking for their side of the story. If not received back within 30 days (maybe 60, I forget), they MUST remove the entry. Otherwise, old, out dated and erroneous info could reside on your report for many years.

[Christien]

You don't need a judgment to submit an account to a collection agency. Our company does it every day. A customer owes us money (for things like NSF charges, not real debts), it's not worth our time to track him down, we send it to a collection agency, they keep just over 1/3 of whatever they collect. We've made thousands over the last couple years. Much faster and more efficient than going through the legal system. It takes at least 6 months to get default judgment by the time all the paperwork is done and waiting periods expire, then you still have to collect.