Jose says:

I'm just writing you because I am so angry with freecreditreport.com. I wanted to check my credit report last month just to see where I stand so after watching the commercial, I used freecreditreport.com.

I am aware that, by law, your allowed one free credit report per year from each of the three credit unions. After I got my credit score I checked my BofA account and saw there was a $14.95 charge. I thought it was just a deposit and that it'll be refunded.

I completely forgot about it and today, a month after I checked my score there is another $14.95 charge. I call freecreditreport.com to see whats wrong and they tell me I have to cancel my membership and the $14.95 charge will not be refunded. I get super upset and then they just hang up on me without trying to give me an explanation. The moral of the story is they are a scam and I would like to let you know that so other people don't fall for the same thing I did.

Thanks, Jose. You might want to call Bank of America and explain the situation to them and see if they'll reverse the charge. You're not the only one who has fallen for the scruffy singing loser and his factually inaccurate songs. They have a big advertising budget, and we are just one little blog trying to explain federal law.

In the middle of a chunk of smaller print explainer next to the signup page, you learn that their name should really be FreeTripleScoreForSevenDays. The deal is you get charged $1 to make sure your credit card works, then you get your credit score from all three bureaus. Starting on or after a 7-day trial, you get charged a $29.95 monthly membership fee for continuous access to your credit score.

So if you cancel ahead of time, you really can get your scores for free. They're of course banking on most people forgetting to cancel. At least then it says you can cancel at any time. I wasn't able to find any online complaints from people saying they had difficulty canceling. I would still check my credit card bills afterwards to make sure they didn't somehow forget to stop billing me... anyone who advertises something as "free" when it so very isn't should not be trusted.

There's also a few less "dangerous" ways to get a free credit score or something like it. CreditKarma.com gives you roughly your TransUnion score for free. MyFico offers an estimator as well. Here's 4 other ways to do it, too.

APPENDIX:

The important part of the FreeTripleScore text:

To activate your trial membership to Privacy Matters 1-2-3 you will be charged/debited a $1.00 refundable processing fee and then you can immediately take advantage of the exciting savings Privacy Matters 1-2-3 has to offer! After your 7-day FREE trial period it’s just $29.95 per month for Privacy Matters 1-2-3. Remember, you can call Privacy Matters 1-2-3 toll-free at 1-877-993-6264 within the first 7 days to cancel, and you will not be charged/debited.

The ad:

PREVIOUSLY: FreeTripleScore.com Will Cost You $30 Per Month

Innovis can actually trace their relevance to everybody's favorite vanguard of responsible finance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The mortgage backers ordered their partner organizations to report mortgage payments to Innovis back in 2001.

Unlike the other bureaus, Innovis lives almost exclusively to build mailing lists that creditors use to determine offers. If you don't want to receive credit offers, call the one-stop opt-out number 888-5-OPTOUT (888-567-8688) and you'll be taken off all four bureaus' lists for two years.

To see what dirt Innovis is reporting to potential creditors, send in the following information:

Full name
Social Security Number
Date of birth (month/day/year)
Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill, lease arrangement or rental receipt
One copy of a legible government-issued identification card, such as a driver's license, state ID card, or military ID card

Mail to:

Innovis
Attention: Consumer Assistance
P.O. Box 1358
Columbus, Ohio 43216-1358

The Fair Credit Reporting Act entitles you to one free Innovis credit report each year. For free credit reports from the other three credit agencies, don't visit any site other than AnnualCreditReport.com.

Pulling Credit Reports - Make Sure And Include Innovis [Alabama Consumer Law Blog]
The credit report you don't know about [Bankrate]

My brother went to the bank last Friday to talk to the branch manager about his situation which I emailed you about 2 weeks ago. The bank reported the check as fraud, not my brother. His account was cancelled because it was opened with a bad check, and he was charged $10 for depositing a bounced check. There was nothing that was entered as a negative mark on his credit report, and the case is pretty much closed.

The manager even went so far as to type up and sign a memo explaining that it was not my brothers fault and that there should be nothing against him on his credit report.

The Wachovia branch manager also offered to open a new account for him.

So, phew! None of the bad things that could have happened to Fred's brother actually happened, like:

• The bank could have pressed fraud charges against him.
• He could have been reported to the FBI.
• A report could have been sent to Chexsystems and made it hard for him to get a new bank account or keep his new one.

PREVIOUSLY: Always Look A Gift Check In The Mouth (Photo: Getty)

(Photo: darkmatter)

By the way, be sure to check out the article for an awesome "zombie debt" illustration by Michael Meister.

"Dealing With Debt That Refuses to Die" [WSJ.com]

So what exactly is the problem? After 12 online (and phone) disputes to Equifax and 14 calls (and faxes) to the Direct Loan Servicing Center, each party seems to blame the other.

David is fed up with being given the runaround. He's drafted a very clear letter and faxed it not only to Equifax and the Direct Loan Servicing Center, but also:

• U.S. Department of Education Federal Studen Aid Ombudsman
• Nationwide Consumer Rights
• National Association of Consumer Advocates
• The Consumerist

Here's the letter, which we're printing in part to publicize Equifax's negligence but also as a guide for others who face a similar problem:

My name is [redacted] and I write this letter to each representative at once so that the issues of the past two years can be remedied and that the buck can, hopefully, stop being passed in regards to the gross errors on my credit report. I am not some typical, ranting customer who has an axe to grind, but rather someone who has had his Federal Student Loan credit falsely reported since July of 2006.

Just so we are all on the same page, I have filed 12 disputes online with Equifax and have called both Equifax and the Direct Loan Servicing Center 14 times (all documented) since July of 2006.

The issue is that my Federal Student Loan balance of $28,455 is being reported twice on my Equifax credit report. The initial account was opened in 09/2000 and then later consolidated in 07/06. However, rather than the balance for the 09/00 account being reduced to $0.00 and the status appearing as “consolidated”, the balance remained. The $28,455 balance also appears, as expected, on the 07/06 account.

Again, the issue is simply that my pre-consolidation account from 09/00 still has a balance of $28,455 as does my post-consolidation account from 07/06. This appears on my Equifax credit report as though I have a total balance owed to the Direct Loan Servicing Center of $56,910 between two accounts.

The Direct Loan Servicing Center has repeatedly verified that I only have one account with a balance, the 07/06 account, and that my only debt to them is $28,455. This was done by Brian Cornia at DL on 05/08/08 and previously by Stephanie (of Team 2) on 01/29/08.

So what exactly is the problem? After 12 online (and phone) disputes to Equifax and 14 calls (and faxes) to the Direct Loan Servicing Center, each party seems to blame the other. Direct Loans claims repeatedly that they are sending the correct information to Equifax, however, as seen in my credit report (below) from 24/Sep/2008, this is still not the case (this full credit report will also be faxed in full, this can be seen on pages 4 and 5).

It may very well be that Direct Loan Servicing Center is dropping the ball on this, but we feel it's ultimately Equifax's responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the data that it collects, places a value on, and then sells for profit to other companies. By misreporting David's credit history and failing to fix it for 26 months now, they're doing persistent damage to his credit history, and not providing a very reliable service to their own customers either.

(Photo: The Shining)

1) free credit report monitoring for six months, plus cash if there's any money left over in settlement fund and you still get to sue them if you want
2) all the benefits of option one but you can't sue them any further.
3) 9 months of credit monitoring, access to some free credit scores, and free use of TransUnion's mortgage simulator service - but no cash payment. For more information, visit the settlement site at ListAction.com or call 1-866-416-3470.

ListClassAction [Official Settlement Site] (Thanks to Scott!)
PREVIOUSLY: Massive TransUnion Settlement To Reveal Credit Scores (Photo: dbdbrobot)

My brother who is a junior at college sent out a bunch of applications for college grants and other sources of funding to pay for his education. Late this summer he received a check in the mail sent to him from one of the organizations that he sent an application to. The check wasn't huge, but the $3500 would come in handy, and certainly would have been a huge help in paying for his books, and housing. When the check actually came in the mail it was just a check, nothing else, no letter of congratulations, explanation or anything else telling him why he had received the money...

I told him he should open up a new bank account so that if it was a fake check, any possible thief's would not get his information and take the rest of the money from his account. He just found out that I was right. He got a phone call from the bank (Wachovia) letting him know that the check was a fake, and that his account (which only contained the money from that one check) was closed due to fraud. They also told him that he has been reported to the FBI, and that the information would be noted on his credit report.

He wasn't really able to get any clear answers from the bank which more or less gave him a corporate run around by not answering anything. I was wondering if it would be a negative thing on his credit report, or if it is just a fraud notice that was placed there. If it is a negative mark against him what can he do to get it removed. Also what are the possible
damages he could face if it was actually fraud.

First off, I hope your brother didn't take any money out of the account, otherwise he's going to have to pay it back.

He should check out his credit report to see what if anything got reported - annualcreditreport.com lets you check all your credit reports for free. I think the only thing they would put there is that his account was closed. If money was taken out, then the report will show that the account was closed in the negative. That will be a "minus" on the credit report, and not something that your brother will be able to dispute and get taken off.

I'm surprised the check didn't come with a letter requesting that a portion of it be mailed somewhere else. That's usually how the scam that this sounds like, advance fee fraud, operates. Maybe that part got lost in the mail.

Opening a new account just for the check was half-smart, and all stupid. It would have been better to have just asked the organization for more information and make the determination from that, rather than open a checking account for a check that the two of you had a pretty decent idea could be bogus. Provided he didn't take out any money from the account, your brother was protected in case the check turned out to be fake, but if the bank decided to be hardasses, they can press charges for check fraud against your brother. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

(Photo: Getty)

Lil ole me. A twenty-seven year old female, simply a poor writer in LA.

Capital One Bank— while I appreciate them sending me a letter telling me they sent a credit card to someone with my SS# yet a different spelling of my name AND address than what is on my records at all three Credit Bureaus— why ON EARTH would they still send out a card?

I called Capital One immediately and successfully prevented the criminal from getting that MasterCard card approved. They went ahead and froze the account. After reporting this to Capital One, they send a fraud claim not to me, the victim, but idiotically to the CRIMINAL who stole my identity. This, in turn, alerted the thief (thieves) to take quicker actions with fraudulently using my identity.

This was an act of negligence as well as an unsavory business practice on Capital One's behalf. Capital One Bank has obstructed the law by aiding these identity thieves who are involved with a federal offense.

I mean, wouldn't it make sense for Capital One (and ALL creditors) to make it a company-wide, mandatory practice to alert the customer BEFORE processing ANY requests with mismatched information from the credit bureaus?

So, I called the Social Security and the Credit Bureaus to put a Fraud Alert on all accounts. Then, the LAPD. Capital One was "gracious" enough to give me the address that the criminal used— [redacted]. And courtesy of the White Pages, the residence of one Magdalena C.

What do I do now? Wait until the LAPD finds her? Call the cops on her? I mean, have they thought of looking this woman up on www.whitepages.com? The internet make identity theft so easy, and perhaps catching the criminals easier too.

I hope this Magdelena C. gets locked up for a LONG time.

Sincerely,
A Victim of Identity Theft

We agree that Capital One showed some extra special incompetence there with the fraud claim form. Maybe you should report what happened to the FBI too—that's a link to their local office locator.

Update: As our editor Ben Popken and some of our readers point out in the comments below, there are a few other things you should do, Lisa, to protect yourself.

• Place a freeze on your credit reports. A fraud alert won't necessarily prevent future abuse. A freeze will.
• File a report with the FTC's ID Theft Hotline: 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338) or http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
• And make sure you filed an actual police report with the LAPD if you haven't already.

(Photo: Getty)

Preferring not to have his credit report read without a written agreement, Steve said no. A week later, a card arrived in the mailing congratulating him on signing up with free credit report monitoring services from Intersections Inc! It even included the Terms of Service that the rep said they were supposedly unable to send out.

A conference call later between his bank and Intersections his problem is on the way to resolution, but of the experience Steve writes, "Identity theft is a real problem. It happened to one of our staffers recently. But after this experience, I think "services" like this are part of the problem, not part of the solution."

Identity Protection . . . Not?! [Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator] (Thanks to John!)

March 25, 2004; March 26, 2004; June 23, 2004; July 2, 2004; July 3, 2004; August 4, 2007; August 5, 2007; August 13, 2007; and August 14, 2007. You could also be at risk if you shopped at their Fresno Cali store between November 26, 2003 and October 24, 2005. If the above describes you, review your credit card statements for unexpected charges and monitor your credit report for strange activity. Affected customers may receive a notice from their credit card company.

Forever 21 also announced the problem to its customers via a small link on its site labeled "Important Customer Info Notice" that no one will ever click on.

Press Release

I received a letter from Countrywide today that says:

"We are writing to inform you that we recently became aware that a Countrywide employee (now former) may have sold unauthorized personal information about you to a third party...

Based on a joint investigation conducted by Countrywide and law enforcement authorities, it was determined that the customer information involved in this incident included your name, address, Social Security number, mortgage loan number, and various other loan and application information."

It goes on to say they will give you 2 years of Triple Advantage credit report monitoring for free and they include a website address and activation code to start the credit monitoring service.

Just great. Luckily the only thing Russian hackers could buy with my credit is a bottle of cheap vodka.

We don't understand why temporary free credit monitoring is always the go-to remedy every time a company "loses" your personal data. The security breach could have huge and long-term financial consequences for you, and the company that enabled that breach should take responsibility for it.

Every company that deals in sensitive data should have identity theft counselors on staff—people who will walk you through a formalized plan for changing account numbers where possible, getting new account numbers if necessary, and setting up a systemized way to monitor financial activity on a weekly or monthly basis. (And they should pay for any fees you're charged in the process.)

Just saying "sorry, here's some free online monitoring" is inadequate—it's like a doctor leaving a clamp inside you after surgery, then giving you coupons for free checkups for a couple of years.

(Thanks to Frisco!)
(Photo: Getty)

I have been battling with a silly preconception the federal government has concerning my status as a deceased person, that causes them to routinely shut down credit cards that I am using, and stresses my ability to build credit. (All this despite being actively enlisted in the US Navy)...

I have managed to track this anomaly down to TranUnion, Equifax, and Experian having records of my death, and that these originated from Best Buy of all places, with whom I held an account with, and subsequently canceled. (Who knew the penalty was doom?) I do not know which exactly of the three I should contact, or all three, and more importantly I was wondering if you knew of the proper format, or a template I could fill out and mass/mail to these three companies, before the damage to my credit keeps me from getting a home?

Hi John,

You need to contact all three of them. You can do this online for free by going through annualcreditreport.com. There's links at each of the bureaus for disputing items on your credit report. Follow them and the instructions and let them know that reports of your death are greatly exaggerated.

Credit Karma [Official Site]

Claudia tried to get Sears/Citibank to correct their report. 25 calls, 11 days, and 3 faxes that never happened later, Claudia stumbled across our post, "Contact Citibank CEO William Rhodes."

She got in touch with a nice lady named Diana and in less than one business day, Claudia's dad was no longer dead. "Thank you so much for such useful information," she writes. "I feel like a big load has been lifted off my shoulders."

Claudia's father could have also disputed the information with the credit bureaus, but that would have taken several months to resolve. The loan couldn't wait. Luckily, trusty ol' executive customer service came to the rescue. Remember it and use it when necessary.

You can trigger adverse action if you:

• Start paying only minimums instead of paying your balance off in full
• Put one month's mortgage on your credit card
• Start to get close to or go over your credit limit
• Have a high balance
• Do an "app-o-rama" or "credit card arbitrage"
• Engage in multiple balance transfers
• Charge more than 30% of your available credit
• Miss payments on your other bills

For extra credit, here's how you can increase your credit score by scoping out the "reason codes" for the factors that are dragging it down. Credit scores are an essential element in how creditors assess your riskiness.

7 tips for surviving the credit crunch [Bankrate]

Now that the California Courts have ruled that ETFs are illegal, does Consumerist have any advice for consumers, like me, who have an outstanding ETF debt with a non-Sprint carrier?

I ask because I canceled my 2002 Cingular (at the time) service due to horrible coverage, terrible customer service, and that I had to routinely call every stinking month to have bogus text message spam charges removed. I switched services, and after doing so, Cingular stuck me with a $270 early termination fee, failed to inform me of the fee or that it was going into collections, and next thing I know, I'm in collections for $580. I didn't find out about this until recently, as I am about to purchase a new car and needed a copy of my credit report.

I initially refused to pay because my cancelling my service was completely justified on my part; the service and coverage I was told I would receive when I signed the contract was NOT at all what I actually did receive. I also refused because their raising of text message fees was a materially adverse change to the contract. Neither Cingular nor their collections drones care.

You can imagine my excitement to hear that ETFs are illegal. I would like to file a suit in small claims against the collections agency and ATT (as successor in interest to Cingular) to recover damages incurred as a result of their sending my account, erroneously, into collections over the ETF AND for attempting to force me to pay a fee which is now known as illegal.

Any advice or leads for advice would be greatly appreciated.

You should obviously talk to a lawyer for real legal advice, "Jurgis," but for now you might want to break your problem into two separate issues:

1. You have a collection on your account that you are disputing;
2. That collection is an ETF, which may end up being illegal banned/voided in your state.

Forget about the legality of the ETF for now; you should file disputes with all three major credit reporting agencies over the $580 collection. The original problem exists regardless of what happens in state or federal court, which is that the company didn't honor their side of the agreement, then failed to notify you that they were sending it to a collection agency.

As to last week's news that ETFs are "illegal" in California, Sprint Nextel will almost certainly file an appeal. Additionally, the ruling might not stand if the FCC moves ahead with its industry-backed plan to step in and say states can't regulate carrier fees. (And if they do, then that might be overturned if states take the FCC to court.) Update: according to outphase, this court's ruling isn't binding upon any other court, or even on itself.

Find a local lawyer to ask whether you can take advantage of the ETF ruling, but our guess is for your immediate needs it won't matter.

That doesn't mean you can't try small claims court anyway, though, if you want to claim that Cingular didn't honor its agreement and that their text rate increase meant you were given the opportunity to legally get out of contract. (Here's a story of a reader who took this route with a subcontractor and won.)

(Photo: Getty

CreditCards.com reports that FICO announced it changed its mind during Congressional testimony yesterday.

Back in the day, adding an authorized user to your account was mainly used by parents to help their kids develop better credit scores. As the housing bubble ramped up, private credit score boosting companies would "rent" authorized user slots to strangers with poor credit so they could qualify for loans they shouldn't have. It was a contributing factor to the subprime meltdown. When FICO developed a new scoring system, FICO 08, in direct response to the credit checking industry's failure to accurately check and score credit, they said they were going to kill piggbyacking.

"Fortunately, we were able to come up with technology that makes it much harder to game the system," said Mike Campbell, FICO COO.

That's good news for responsible consumers looking to get better rates on their credit cards, mortgages, and other loans.

'Piggybacking' gets stay of execution from FICO [CreditCards.com]
(Photo: Special*Dark)

Oliver writes:

I’ve been a Citibank Platinum cardholder since 1989 – that’s longer than some bloggers have been alive now that I think about it – anyway, in all that time I have never (and I seriously mean never as in NOT A SINGLE TIME) had so much as a late payment. In fact I typically pay thousands of dollars a month in Citibank payments because I get mileage from the card so I use it for everything I possibly can.

So today I go to pay for a rental car and I get declined which is pretty weird but because Citibank has a ridiculous and excessive security policy I figure that renting a car in my own neighborhood is triggering a risk profile. So I call and when I inquire they tell me that I am over my credit limit. Huh? “ I’m nowhere near my credit limit “I say, “I just sent you guys a couple thousand dollars not three days ago.”

“I’m sorry sir, it says here you’ve exceeded your credit limit of xxxxxx”.
“
“Umm, excuse me,” I say, “my credit limit is not xxxxxx, it’s yyyyy.”(yyyy being a couple thousand more than she is telling me it is)

She says that I should hold and as I’m holding I realize that there’s a vein starting to bulge in my forehead and that little pieces of my porcelain crown are starting to chip as I grind my teeth in irritation.

After two minutes of listening to their loony-happy Citibank hell-evator muzak she comes back and seemingly gleefully informs me that: “Sir, due to some recent negative information on your credit report we’ve determined that you are a credit risk and have lowered your spending limit accordingly. If you’d like to make a payment over the phone to restore your account to a non-over-the-limit status I’d be happy to help you with that.”

About now the crown gives it up completely reminding me that I have a dentist appointment in an hour.

I ask for the credit risk management department and after another five minutes of their delightful muzak director’s shit taste I get some bimbo named Carolyn or Charlotte or something like that.

I explain to her that this must be some sort of mistake and besides, how can they lower the available credit for someone that has never missed a freaking single payment in nearly twenty years? Never even been late one time in that whole time? Never even paid just the minimum due in that whole time?

Apparently she thinks this is humorous because she takes on this condescending tone with me and suggests that if I paid all my bills on time perhaps I wouldn’t be having this problem.

It’s a miracle I’m not stroking our right there or doing an imitation of that eighties movie Scanners where the guys make each other explode from some sort of telekinetic/pyrokinetic attack. Before their heads actually explode they start to bleed out through bulging veins and that’s about how I feel listing to Miss C... $6.50 an hour tell me about paying my bills on time.

I ask just what it is that is on the credit report that is reflecting so poorly on my but she can’t (or won’t) share this information with me. As she says this last I swear she’s laughing. I wonder to myself where they find these people and realize that she’s lucky she lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – it should give you some idea of how annoyed I am that anyone would be lucky to live in Sioux Falls. If she were much closer I could see myself paying her a visit...

At any rate, feeling far from satisfied at this turn of events and the delightful treatment I’ve had at the hands of a bank that’s been the recipient of large sums of my money for two decades I head home and get a copy of my credit report.

As I review it a second vein, this one in my neck starts to turn an ominous shade of purple and I realize that I’m punching the keys on my computer so hard I am actually bruising my own fingers.

Looking at the report I see what the problem is – or rather what they are. Two companies that I do business with are both indicating that I’ve been thirty days late making payments once in the last ninety days.

Only both of these issues are not exactly correct. In both cases the vendors, Sony and Volkswagen respectively failed to mail me billing statements to the correct address in spite of both of them being updated as to the change.

I contact both Sony and VW and in both cases they agree that their own system errors were to blame and that they’ll notify the credit bureaus that the derogatory information will be removed from my report the next time they update their files.

Hearing this I feel somewhat better and the vein in my neck throttles back to a more garden variety bluish tint- still not normal but at least not “you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” purple.

Silly me. I figure that armed with this information I can contact Citibank and get things straightened out.

Au contraire Mr idiot. Citibank decides that you’re a deadbeat and no amount of perfect history will reconcile the fact that you’re not. Isn’t this wonderful I think to myself – through no fault of my own by credit bureau report gets hosed and in spite of both companies committing to fixing their mistakes, a company with whom I’ve done business for ages, and with whom I not only have credit but also funds on deposit (a factor which you’d think alone was sufficient to mitigate their concerns) they won’t even talk to me about it.

The new credit manager – Sue is her name – informs me that “once I get the credit bureau’s corrected report I can write them and they will evaluate the account to determine if I am eligible for an increase at that time.” Can you believe it? “Eligible for an increase” Not, “sorry we fucked up and we’ll fix this right away.” Not “thank you for your loyal business we appreciate you taking the time to straighten this out. “ Not even ”I apologize for the inconvenience and will see what I can do to rectify the situation.” Nope. “Just screw you mister deadbeat you’re just another suspect loser and we could care less about your history with us, your funds on deposit or any other factor which should indicate your continuing credit worthiness. “ Nope. She won’t even give me the name of an executive to whom I can write a letter.

In fact, “Sue” tells me that they always play it this way. She says if they’re going to lower someone’s available credit they always do it first thing in the morning and they never tell people in advance so that folks can’t preemptively charge their cards up to whatever limit they might happen to have before the decrease takes effect.

That’s messed up. All of it. The fact that people would play that charge up the card game is pretty lame but the way Citibank treats its customers is even lamer. The simple fact is that two providers of services screwed up and made an erroneous report to the credit bureaus regarding my credit. This in turn impacted my score which caused Citibank to take action that impacted my score further.

So even though I could prove that the problems that started this whole chain of events were definitely not my fault and that further there is nothing wrong with my credit worthiness or even any negative change in my financial standing, Citibank has chosen to treat me as if I’m a complete loser who doesn’t pay his bills.

By this time I’m so burnt out on trying to fix things that I’ve no longer got the energy to grind my teeth and my blood pressure has apparently plateaued at some unacceptably high level leaving me a bit bug eyed and with a pounding headache and the desire to — write something and stick it up Citibank executive’s asses. Maybe, I think to myself... Maybe consumerist will write something about this and those fucktards at Citibank will learn to treat people a little nicer... And not to fuck with bloggers.

Though Oliver may be Citibank's ideal customer, the bank's actions are no surprise. Banks are furiously slashing credit lines to limit their exposure to the ongoing subprime meltdown, often relying on credit reports to justify their actions.

Sony and Volkswagen may be willing to take responsibility for the erroneous blot, but Citibank won't restore the full credit line until the mistake falls from the credit report. Neither company can be trusted to unilaterally inform the credit reporting agencies of their mistake. When you spot an error on your credit report, dispute the negative item yourself.

Banks aren't eager to tell customers that they're slashing limits, so they stay quiet and hope nobody notices. Keep an eye on your monthly credit card statement to see if your limit suddenly falls, and take advantage of your free annual credit report to spot errors before they harm your credit line and your credit score.

RELATED: Contact Citibank CEO William Rhodes
(Photo: Getty)

In 2006 I received a pre-approved card from Capital One, I had used it once or twice and always payed my bill on time, In early spring of 2007 I had cut up the card as I did not want to use it anymore, and just wanted to pay it off. In Jan of 2008 I was no longer able to log in to the online bill payment section of the site, which was fine for the first month as I just sent a check in the mail to pay the bill.

I moved in Feb and called them to change my address, I had the lady on the line repeat it back to me to make sure it was correct and it took her 3 time to get it correct.

I had also asked her to fix my online account so I could pay my bill online once more and she transferred me to the online support. I asked the guy who I was talking to to fix the account and he said that he would un-freeze it. (I never bothered to ask why it was frozen in the first place). He told me to wait up to 24 hours for it to become unfrozen before I log in, I tried to log in later that week to pay my bill, and was still unable to.

As I was unable to pay my bill online I just waited for my statement and once again payed with a check, I payed with a check until May when I called to ask them to fix my account once again, and they claimed I had a bad check. But upon checking my bank statement It showed that the check went through.

In total I had talked to over 10 people during a three month period, and payed over 200 dollars to them. I requested a new card, which was never received.

This last week I had payed my bill 2 weeks before it was due, and payed more than the minimum amount. I checked on the account today and noticed that the payment went through and somehow I now have a past due payment, which I did not have before, and that I was -0 available credit, I don't see how this is possible seeing as I had been paying the minimum amount each month for a year, without using my card and had over 100 dollars available earlier that week and that it went down after paying my bill...

I have tried to fix this multiple times with no results... I am a young individual, and now I have horrible credit... Was just hoping you guys could help.

Perfect Credit, no more... Thanks Capital one

Okay, Joseph. We're not sure what your current balance is, or your current financial situation, but here's what we think you should do to fix this situation.

First, go over your story and document it in as much detail as possible—there's a lot of gaps in the above account. The months where your check cleared but they marked it late are particularly important. Also document to the best of your recollection every customer service call you made, what it was you requested on that call, and whether or not it was followed-up on the Capital One side. If you started using the account again after cutting up the card, or if you took cash advances, note it. Put all of this in a single document and make sure it's easy for you to reference while you're on the phone.

Make sure you have a case before the next step—if it turns out you mailed payments later than you thought, or missed a month, or you charged up your balance again in the past 12 months and forgot to include that in your story, then accept responsibility. When you contact Capital One, it should be to request that they correct an error on their part that you have clearly documented—not to help bail you out of a mistake you made.

Call Capital One's executive customer service line and request assistance. (Try these numbers: 703-720-2500 and 800-548-4593.) Explain that you've been repeatedly locked out of your account, that your checks are clearing before the due date yet payments are being marked late, etc. Make it clear what you want to accomplish, for example:

• remove any incorrect late fees
• regain online access to your account
• receive a new card

If Capital One can't help you and you have proof that you're right and they're wrong, file a dispute with each credit reporting agency. Check out this post for advice on how to file disputes.

Another thing you should do if Capital One won't help you is close the account. You'll have to pay it off like an open credit card but won't have access to it anymore, and yes, it will impact your credit score. But if you can't trust Capital One to report your payments correctly and they refuse to help you correct the matter, you're better off avoiding them entirely and waiting for another credit offer to come along to build up credit. The ding from closing the account will be less damaging than repeated dings from billing errors, if they won't fix them.

Stay on top of your credit history and Capital One—remember to check your credit report every four months. It's free if you use annualcreditreport.com and request your free report from only one of the three agencies each time. Do not use freecreditreport.com!

And lastly, always pay more than the minimum on any credit card bill, even if it's just $5-10. You'll ultimately save more money in the long run by paying less interest, and some creditors may even report you as paying more than the minimum.

• CreditKarma.com: Gives you your TransUnion score. Advertising-supported.
• E-Loan: Experian score. Scroll down to "One-Time Credit Snapshots" and "Free Credit Score (Credit Score Only)"
• Prosper: Experian score. Information on how to do it here.
• LendingClub: Gives you a letter grade score, which you can use this chart to translate to a numerical score.
• Washington Mutual Credit Cards: Get your Transunion score when you log in.

• Another way these are useful is that if you check in periodically and keep track of the results, you can see how your score fluctuates and try to correlate its delta with any credit-related actions you took during that time. But, if you're shopping for a loan or a mortgage, you will definitely want to pony up the cash and get your real FICO score.

  [via MyMoneyBlog]

Third-party collectors, who buy old debts for pennies on the dollar and are the largest source of complaints to the FTC, are also the companies most likely to sue. The courtroom approach works in their favor: defendants often don't have lawyers, and a new law passed last year in Illinois and "pushed by creditors' lawyers" took away a judge's power to limit the amount that could be garnished from wages. It's at least partly why the third party debt collection industry raked in around $15.5 billion in 2006.

Consumer groups say the high number of default judgments can mask flaws with the lawsuits. Credit agreements and payment histories are often not included when suits are filed. Instead, debt collectors file an affidavit attesting to the validity of the debt, and it's not unusual for that affidavit to be erroneous, said Bob Hobbs, deputy director of the National Consumer Law Center.

Andersen acknowledged that there is ambiguity about the minimum evidence needed to verify a debt. In New York, an Urban Justice Center study in 2006 found that in 99 percent of a sampling of default judgments that the evidence used to obtain the judgment did not meet the state's legal standards.

"Debt collectors pushing to get their day in court" [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: Getty)

It's alleged that while Jackson worked at Time Warner, she received a payment on a customer's account through a credit card and kept the victim's credit card numbers. This allegedly happened at a call center located in Blue Ash, according to a Time Warner representative.

In the following weeks, Jackson allegedly ordered items over the internet and over the phone using the numbers.

Investigators said Jackson had the items sent to her home, but it is not yet clear whether that led to her arrest.

Wait, she used the stolen info to shop and mail things to her own address? We're going to allege that Jackson was an idiot.

"Former Time Warner Cable Employee Arrested For ID Theft" [WCPO News]

After Ilan successfully filed a chargeback on a company, the company decided to bill him directly for the amount that was refunded. What's even sneakier is the company (which Ilan didn't name) waited until after they reported the matter resolved to the Better Business Bureau. Now Ilan's wondering what options he has to fight back.

Here's Ilan's full story:

My wife and I recently issued a charge back with American Express on a transaction with a merchant, as they had not provided the services we agreed to. AMEX reviewed the dispute and found in our favor. However, the merchant is now attempting to bill us directly for the balance AMEX awarded us. Do we have any recourse in this mater? We are concerned they may attempt to collect on this, and ding our credit rating. Can you offer any recommendations?

We had previously attempted to resolve the issue amicably with the merchant via telephone/e-mail, and then eventually with EECB and a complaint through the Better Bureau. At each of these steps the merchant dragged their feet on responding to our complaint. We eventually mentioned the issues in question to AMEX and they recommended we issue a charge back sooner rather than later. In good faith, we waited until the last possible moment to dispute the charges. We were hoping that the company would see the light and decide to work with us, on our credit card.

Up until the point that AMEX found in our favor the company was not responding to our complaints. As soon as we were credit for the amount in question, they responded to the BBB complaint (almost 60 days later). They indicated that the matter was "resolved" via our dispute at AMEX and asked that the BBB close the case.

Now we are staring at a bill that is dated weeks after their response to the BBB. E-mails and phone calls continue to go unanswered.

We appreciate any advice you can offer on what to do next.

First of all, we suggest you immediately re-open a complaint with the BBB and indicate that the company lied to the BBB about resolving the issue. You should also write a letter back to the company and make it clear that you consider the matter settled as per the terms of your original credit card purchase. As far as protecting your credit, you'll just have to wait to see if it shows up on your credit report—if it does, then you can take action to dispute it and have it removed.

You may want to also check with legal services in your state (try your state's Attorney General website) to see whether the company is committing mail fraud by billing you for a transaction that was already reversed.

(Photo: Getty)

Sallie Mae has publicly apologized for a coding error, potentially affecting around 1 million customers, that caused some consumers credit scores to drop over 100 points, and some consumers report that their dinged scores are already back up. If your score is not back to normal and you are in the middle of a transaction where your good credit is at stake, Sallie Mae said it will provide a credit reference letter. You can also call Sallie Mae customer service at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie has pledged that the fix is in, but consumers can still take matters into their own hands by pulling their free credit report from annualcreditreport.com and disputing the incorrect information with Experian. Note, it's against Federal law for creditors to report false information to credit bureaus, and consumers can sue violators up to $1,000.

PREVIOUSLY: FICO Scores Drop Over 100 Points After Sallie Mae Recode, Potentially Millions Affected

(Photo: Getty)

While it may not be obvious when a consumer receives such a high verdict, without attorney fee awards, most attorneys would not be able to bring lawsuits against credit reporting bureaus like Equifax, unscrupulous debt collectors, mortgage fraudsters, and other consumer predators. As the 11th Circuit said over two decades ago, "[t]he award of attorney fees, as a practical matter, is a critical and integral part of [the creation of a system of private attorneys general.]"

Two days before the transplant, the hospital called Drew to tell him that his half brother, Michael, had mononucleosis and that it would be months before he could be up to the surgery required for his donation. Devastated, Drew dialed Alexa to tell her the news. She didn't skip a beat. "I'll be your donor, Eric," she said. Two days before Christmas, Drew received Alexa's stem cells through a catheter in his chest. It would be three months before he would know if the stem cells had grafted, and he knew the odds were low. But he had no idea how low he could get.
 
During his treatment in Seattle, he began getting strange calls from credit card companies thanking him for his application. Drew shrugged it off as best he could until the collection agents started arriving at his door. There were a half dozen accounts opened in his name, with almost $10,000 in charges. "Please stop this!" Drew told one of the banks on the phone. "I'm in a hospital dying!"
 
But there was no stopping this thief. Here Drew was, on the verge of death, and someone was stripping away his last shred of humanity. He felt that his identity was being taken on every level. The disease was robbing him of his life. Some criminal was stealing his identity.

So that's the summary. Here's the full story in Jesus' own words:

Hello Consumerist...
 
I found myself swayed by the curiosity of knowing my credit score and I chose to go to the very adamantly advertised freecreditreport.com. Once I was at their website I found out that the free credit report was not really free to begin with, since you had to provide your credit card information and sign for a monthly plan of "free" credit reports and credit change notices. Since I was already there I said, "What the Hell?... Lets do it anyways!". I completed the sign up process and the website announced that I could access my credit reports once I received a confirmation e-mail which I never received, hence I could never access my credit reports.
 
I was fully aware that I could cancel the service at any time, but I totally forgot about this because my workload augmented and three months later, when i had a chance to look i noticed that my credit card statement had several more charges (14.95) from freecreditreport.com that reminded me of the "missing confirmation email" and my "never checked" credit report. I tried to sign in on their website, but the password and username where not valid. I expected that since i had never confirmed my account by clicking on the link provided in these kind of emails, then I thought well maybe my username and password where indeed wrong and I went to their forgot your password section and they ask for your full name and social security no., so i thought well this might get me somewhere... I entered my info and the screen said record does not exist.
This is where I tried to cance it... and that is when the s*%& hit the fan.
 
I tried cancelling the account 4 times and the call either got dropped or i was on hold for ages. I was not expecting anything outrageous from them... I only wanted a full refund for a service that i was charged for and not even used. The people on the other side of the phone were condesending to say the least. They treated me like a child that is asking to play with mommy's diamond necklace. They gave me phony reasons on why I should keep their service, (even though i could not access it) they told me things like: "are you sure you want to cancel because according to our records there has been suspicious activity in your credit history" as if some dark figure was using my social security no. to conquer the world.
 
I finally got them to cancel my account, but the lady hung up on me without talking about a refund of any sort, so I called back and explained the situation to a guy named "Guy" (corporate no. 35897) and he said that a refund was out of the question since they had monitored my scores daily and the service was in fact provided. I politely disagreed and explained for the 6th time that i had not even accessed my profile once. He raised his voice and repeated that a refund was out of the question, as if the louder voice was going to make me understand their logic resolution "Let us Screw this guy". He said that the only ones that could offer me a full refund was their customer satisfaction department, so I asked to be transferred to that department and he said that could not be done. I asked to ask to a supervisor and he defiantly said "why do you want to talk to one?, he is going to tell you the same thing i am". I was pretty mad, but i kept my cool and asked the number to this department and their e-mail and he said that they did not have one and that the only way to get a hold of them was through a letter and I said "Come on man!!! Y'all have a website, but not email addresses. He agreed to give me a refund for the last month and hung up and forgot to tell me the address to the Customer Satisfaction Dept... I don't want to call them again and go through that crap again.

 
Can you advise me on this matter?
 
Jesus [redacted] from South Texas.

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Consumerist posts about FreeCreditReport.com

• I Caught The Fraud Early: I dive into my accounts regularly, like Scrooge McDuck without the gold. I caught the charges the day after they cleared and quickly ended the theif's joyride. Once someone gets ahold of your card, they charge as much as they can before the credit line snaps.
• I Called My Bank: I immediately called my bank and reported the fraudulent activity. I asked them to cancel the card, issue a new one, and make sure no shady happenings were affecting my other accounts.
• I Filed A Fraud Alert: Just to be safe, I put a fraud alert in my credit file to make it difficult for anyone—myself included—to open new lines of credit. I filed the request online with Equifax, which then notified the other two credit bureaus. Filing a fraud alert also entitled me to a free copy of my credit report, which I requested.
• I Asked For Help: Sure, I'm a consumer advocate and I know how to handle these situation, but I'm also a forgetful yutz who can't remember what happened yesterday. To be sure I didn't leave anything out, I touched base with Ben, Meghann, and Chris. It turns out I did everything right, but there is never any shame in asking for help.
• I Was Grateful: This happened last Saturday, the Ides of March. Things could have been worse.

All in all, this isn't a biggie. I spent 45 minutes on the phone and relied on my backup card for a few days. I don't have debt collectors clamoring for buckets of cash and my credit isn't ruined. If this was bona fide identity theft, I would have used this post as a guide back to sanity.

Perversely, it was almost fun to use the tools I spend so much time writing about. It's something I hope none of you ever experience, but if you do, staying calm and knowing how to respond can make all the difference.

(Photo: KUTV)

Kiplinger was able to fix the problem with what we hope was a vaguely threatening phone call:

You were misinformed. The information missing from your report was from major banks, including Citibank and Bank of America, so it should have been included. "This was not an optimal customer-service experience," Steven Katz of TransUnion's TrueCredit.com, admitted to us.

You should also be aware that name changes can cause some confusion.

If information is missing, check your statements to see whether the card issuer is using a different version of your name. If you change your name after getting married, contact all of your lenders — even issuers of old cards you may not have used in a while. And be as persistent as Cindy.

In January 2007, I took out a Graduate Plus Loan to cover a couple of courses at George Washington University. I was in-school half-time from mid-January to mid-May of 2007. Accordingly, I should have been covered by an in-school deferment through May of 2007. Well, unknown to me, my lender, ACS (as sub-lender to PNC bank) decided that I actually needed to be making student loan payments while in school and never decided to tell me about it!

So I was surprised to see this past September that the account was being reported as having been 60 days past due in May and 90 days past