Category: Student loan balances higher than high credit

  • Experian refusal to investigate factual credit disputes and FALSE accusations of FRAUD

    Here is the repost from the new Liars and Cheats EXPOSED blog at FTC complaint about Experian refusal to investigate factual credit disputes and the documentation and correspondence is posted there.

    My client actually INCLUDED a copy of his drivers license and utility bill with his factual disputes AND Experian provided him with his credit report prior to receiving the disputes.

    Trans Union and Equifax processed the disputes, but on 1/20/10, Experian not only refused to investigate, but also made the most bizarre and FALSE accusation:

    We received a suspicious request regarding your personal credit information that we have determined was not sent by you. This could be deemed as deceptive or fraudulent use of your information. We have not taken any action on this request. Any future requests made in this manner will not be processed and will not receive a response. Suspicious requests are taken seriously and reviewed by Experian security personnel who will report deceptive activity, including copies of letters deemed as suspicious, to law enforcement officials and to state or federal regulatory agencies.

    The SCAN of the 1/20/10 Experian notice.

    We hoped that the law enforcement and regulatory agencies would contact my client after receiving  reports of this fraud from the Experian security personnel.  However, my client was not contacted by anyone.

    On 4/19/10, my client submitted his complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.

    On 5/3/10, he wrote to Experian with the following requests:

    • Identification of all law enforcement and agencies Experian contacted regarding his disputes.
    • The Experian explanation of how it determined that fraud was committed.
    • Deletion of the incorrectly reported and disputed LVNV accounts (this will be addressed in detail at the new LVNV blog)
    • Correction of the student loans.  This is a known systemic problem as all CRAs report the “high balance” as the INITIAL loan amount and they refuse to include the DEFERRED interest that’s added to the loan amount every month.In 9/08 I explained in detail how this INCORRECT reporting lowers FICO scores:

    Credit bureaus and Sallie Mae REFUSE to correct student loan high credit reporting

    • Deletion of several derogatory accounts because Experian does NOT disclose the scheduled deletion date.  Presumably, the accounts are not scheduled for deletion.

    I can’t wait for the response from Experian and it sure would be nice if the FTC actually contacted Experian as per their new policy, for details please read How to File Complaints with the FTC and Other Regulators.

    Of course we will update with the results of disputes at the Liars and Cheats EXPOSED blog:

    FTC complaint about Experian refusal to investigate factual credit disputes

    I’d like to hear from others who received this bizarre Experian decline to investigate and you can post comments at Liars and Cheats EXPOSED.

  • Credit bureaus and Sallie Mae REFUSE to correct student loan high credit reporting

    Every month the balances on deferred student loans increase as the deferred interest is added, but the “high credit”, “original balance”, “highest amount owed” or whatever label is on the credit reports is NOT increased. 

    Obviously, it’s NOT good for credit scores to have installment loan balances higher than the original loan amounts and FICO scoring software does NOT exclude from the installment balance/limit ratio the student loans with the notation indicating that the loan is in deferment

    When consumers dispute, the credit bureaus update with the new increased balance, but they do NOT update the “high credit”, the most owed. 

    The Experian negative score factor:

    The remaining balance on your non-mortgage installment loans is too high.

    FICO scoring software determines that you are a poor credit risk because you’re owing more on your non-mortgage installment loans than when you got the loans.

    Current balance / high credit = percentage of amount still owed.

    In this case:

    $8,779 / $6,000 = 146%

    Several clients disputed TWICE and TWICE all three credit bureaus FAILED TO CORRECT!

    The first dispute of the Sallie Mae student loans to Equifax:

    2) Sallie Mae [account # redacted] and [account # redacted] – Please correct the High Credit. It can not possibly be LOWER than the current balance.

    Equifax VERIFIED with the incorrect reporting.

    The 8/18/08 2nd dispute :

    2) You VERIFIED the OBVIOUSLY incorrect reporting of the Sallie Mae student loans with the High Credit LOWER than the current Balance.  Please advise Sallie Mae to correct the reporting and to ensure that ALL student loans are reported correctly as FICO scores are lowered by this practice. 

    The 9/9/08 Equifax investigation results:

    HUH?

    (Click on picture for larger view) 

    These two Equifax screenshots are from the SAME investigation results. 

    This is a TYPICAL example of communications with credit bureaus.

    When a client disputed with Sallie Mae directly, it responded that it was reporting accurately and it failed to correct the credit reporting.