Category: Consumer Protection

HOW TO DISPUTE CREDIT REPORT ERRORS

12/17/2018

Check your credit report for errors

Many people have credit errors they are unaware of, which could be hurting your credit. If you have recently been denied credit or a loan, it is important to check your credit report for errors.

The FTC has found that an estimated 1 in 5 consumers has an error on their credit report, which could be causing you to pay higher interest rates and insurance premiums, or to be denied credit.

When checking your credit report for errors, you should look for some of the most common credit report errors such as incorrect personal information, accounts that do not belong to you, potential identity theft accounts, closed accounts that report as open, duplicate accounts, inaccurate payment history, or incorrect balances on your credit report.

If you have filed for bankruptcy, checking your credit report after bankruptcy can also help you discover credit report errors that could be harming your credit. After filing bankruptcy, you should check your credit report to ensure discharged debts are reported as closed, included in bankruptcy and with $0 balances. If an account is reported as open, or with an existing balance after bankruptcy, this could mislead creditors and lenders and make you appear to be a riskier candidate for credit. If your debt was charged-off or assigned to collections prior to filing bankruptcy, you should also ensure that these accounts report as closed, with $0 balances, and remarks that indicate the account was included in or discharged in bankruptcy.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CREDIT REPORT

How to read your credit report and understand your credit report is essential to performing a credit check. The national consumer reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion maintain your personal credit information and are commonly referred to as the credit bureaus.

Credit reports contain personal information such as names, date of birth, addresses, public records, and financial information, including past or existing credit card accounts or loans. Checking your personal information is important to ensure that your credit report does not contain information belonging to someone else. If you see an address you do not recognize on your credit report, this could signal potential identity theft.

Public records on your credit report typically include things such as bankruptcy, and in the past, civil judgments.

Each individual account or tradeline appearing on your credit report typically includes the following categories of information reported by furnishers of this information such as creditors or collectors to the credit bureaus:

Name of Creditor: the name of the bank, lender or credit card company.
Account Number: the unique account number associated with your account or loan.
Account or Loan Type: these include (1) "installment" accounts such as automobile loans, mortgage loans, and student loans, (2) "revolving" accounts such credit cards or home equity lines of credit, and (3) "open" accounts such as a utility bill or cellular telephone bill.
Account Balance: the current amount owed.
Past Due: whether there is a past due amount.
High Balance: the highest reported balance on the account.
Account Status: this can indicate whether the account is open, current, past due, charged-off, in collections, settled for less than the full balance, or included in or discharged in bankruptcy.
Date Updated: the date the account information was updated by the furnisher.
Date Opened: the date the account was opened.
Responsibility: this indicates whether you are individually responsible for the account or whether there is a joint accountholder.
Payment History: this will indicate whether past payments have been made on time or late. Most late payments reported on credit reports will report the days past due, such as 30, 60, 90, 120, and beyond. Alternatively, late payments can be reported by codes such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and beyond denoting a certain length of time (for example 1 can mean 30 days late).
Remarks: like the Account Status, this can indicate whether the account is open, current, past due, charged-off, in collections, or included in or discharged in bankruptcy.

Collection Accounts on your credit report will typically report similar information, and include the following additional information:

Original Creditor: the name of the original bank, creditor, or lender.
Original Balance: the balance prior to collections.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT CREDIT REPORT ERRORS

Should I dispute my credit report myself or hire an Attorney?
If you find a credit report error, you should contact an attorney familiar with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Attorneys that help with credit report errors typically market or advertise services as consumer attorneys, or consumer protection attorneys. A consumer lawyer can help you dispute credit report errors by writing effective credit disputes to the credit bureaus.

Some attorneys will help you dispute your credit report with the credit bureaus for free. This is because if your credit dispute is denied, you may be a good candidate for an FCRA lawsuit, in which case the attorney will typically work on a contingency basis because of the fee-shifting provisions in the FCRA.

You can also dispute credit report errors for free by filing a dispute directly with the credit bureaus yourself. We recommend that you dispute credit report errors in writing with the credit bureaus. Although credit bureaus allow you to dispute your credit report online, there are often benefits to writing your own dispute and including the details of your credit dispute and any supporting documentation.

You should be cautious when dealing with non-attorneys such as credit repair companies, or persons asking you to pay money up front who make promises guarantees. Remember: the bureaus do not charge you to dispute your credit report, in other words, you can dispute your credit report for free.

Disputing YOUR CREDIT REPORT

How to dispute errors on your credit report.

When preparing a credit report dispute, you should provide a detailed explanation of the credit report error. A detailed description of the reason your credit report is inaccurate will help you resolve credit report errors. You can also include supporting documents with your dispute.

Your dispute should contain the following information:

Full Name
Current Address
Date of Birth
Social Security Number
The File Number or Report Number contained on your credit report (this may not always be applicable)
Identify the disputed item(s) by Account Name and Account Number

The dispute should be mailed to the credit bureaus, and not the bank, creditor, or lender that reports inaccurate information (also known as the "furnishers" of information).

You should mail your credit report dispute to the credit bureaus at the addresses listed on their websites (please be sure to check for up-to-date addresses):

To dispute your credit report with Experian, mail your credit report dispute to:
Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
P.O. Box 4500
Allen, TX 75013

To dispute your credit report with Equifax, mail your credit report dispute to:
Equifax Information Services, LLC
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374

To dispute your credit report with TransUnion, mail your credit report dispute to:
TransUnion, LLC
Consumer Dispute Center
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016

Please be sure to mail your credit report dispute by certified mail so that you can prove that the dispute was mailed if necessary.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I DISPUTE MY CREDIT REPORT?

After you dispute your credit report, the bureaus are required to perform a reinvestigation of your credit dispute. Depending on the type of credit dispute, the credit bureau may be able to make changes to your credit report based on the information you provide with your dispute. In other cases, the credit bureau will contact the company reporting the information you disputed (also known as “furnishers”) and ask them to review your credit dispute.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit bureaus must complete their review of your dispute dispute within 30 days (unless you have supplemented your existing credit report dispute with additional information during this time. At the conclusion of this review, the bureaus will notify you of the results of your credit dispute.

If your dispute is resolved, you are typically not required to do anything else.

If your credit dispute is not resolved, you have certain rights, including, appealing the results of your credit dispute with the bureaus, sending another credit dispute, or filing a lawsuit under the FCRA.

If your credit report dispute is denied by the credit bureaus, you should speak to a knowledgeable FCRA lawyer. You may be a good candidate for an FCRA lawsuit.

We offer free phone consultation and credit reviews by phone. If we accept your case, we will handle your matter on a contingency fee basis, meaning we will not charge you any attorneys' fees unless we recover money from the defendant(s).

You may contact us using our contact form below or by calling our office at (313) 415-5559.

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TCPA LawYER: Automatic Telephone Dialing System

4/7/2017

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TCPA: Automatic Telephone Dialing System or ATDS

TCPA lawyers are familiar with the terms automatic telephone dialing system, or autodialers (ATDS for short). Collection calls or telemarketing calls from autodialers are often referred to as robocalls. But what is an autodialer?

The FCC defines an autodialer as equipment that has the capacity to dial without human intervention. Whether equipment is an ATDS is important for purposes of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits collection calls or telemarketing calls to a cellular telephone without the prior express consent of the person who is called.

An ATDS is “equipment that has the capacity to (a) store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (b) to dial such numbers.” The FCC deems any equipment or software that has the capacity to generate numbers and dial them without human intervention an ATDS, regardless of whether the numbers called are randomly or sequentially generated or come from calling lists.

An FCC Declaratory ruling and Order that became effective on July 10, 2015 rejected the argument that an ATDS should be limited to a system that has the “current” or “present capacity” to dial numbers randomly or sequentially. According to the FCC, an ATDS includes equipment that has the “potential functionality” to dial randomly or sequentially. Under the FCC’s definition, dialing equipment generally meets the TCPA’s autodialer definition, even if it is not presently used for that purpose.

If you are receiving collection calls that include automated messages, the creditor or debt collector is probably using an autodialer. Autodialers are a tool used by debt collectors to make harassing collection calls that cause stress and interrupt your daily life. If you are receiving collection calls on your mobile phone, the TCPA allows you to put an end to these collection calls. If you or someone you know are receiving unwanted collection or marketing calls, contact our office at (313) 415-5559 to speak with a knowledgeable TCPA lawyer.

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What is the telephone consumer protection act?

2/14/2017

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A lot of people wonder what they can do to stop collection calls or to stop other forms of creditor harassment. One of the first things people experience when they fall behind on credit cards or other forms of debt is collection calls to their mobile phone. Your creditors and debt collectors know that if they bombard you with calls to your mobile phone, you will be thinking about the debt you owe them every second of every day. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act can help you stop these collection calls, and even help you recover damages against creditors who violate the TCPA.

The TCPA prohibits the use of automated telephone dialing systems ("ATDS") without prior express consent of the consumer. Penalties for violating the TCPA can include statutory damages of up to $1,500 per telephone call.

If you are receiving unwanted collection calls or being harassed by your creditors, contact one of our Michigan consumer protection attorneys to learn more about your rights under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. You can reach us by calling our office at (313) 415-5559 or by emailing Nick Hadous at nhadous@hadousco.com. The consultation is free and always confidential.

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SHOULD I FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY?

1/3/2017

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Whether to file bankruptcy can depend on many different things. For some, bankruptcy can be a first and only option, or a last resort.

Who is a good candidate for bankruptcy?
If you are considering filing bankruptcy, you probably have too much debt to repay. Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows you to liquidate or eliminate this debt without having to repay discharged debt. Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to repay some portion of the debt you owe for a 3-5 years.

Chapter 7 candidates typically have minimal assets, modest to low income, and high credit card or other consumer debt. In fact, when we speak to potential bankruptcy clients, our main points of inquiry are: income, assets, and type of debt.

Assets: bankruptcy allows you to keep your property up to certain limits known as bankruptcy exemptions. Sometimes these exemptions can protect all of your property during bankruptcy. Filing chapter 7 bankruptcy puts your assets at risk if the value of these assets exceeds the applicable state or federal exemption for the asset category (e.g., homestead exemption, motor vehicle exemption, clothing exemption, etc.). Some states allow debtors to choose between federal and state bankruptcy exemptions. State bankruptcy exemptions vary and you should speak to a local bankruptcy attorney about these limits. Federal bankruptcy exemptions include the homestead exemption ($23,675), and the motor vehicle exemption ($3,775).
Income: your income must fall below the applicable median income for your county of residence and household size. For example, the median income for a family of 4 in Michigan is approximately $82,000. If your income exceeds the applicable median income, you will be required to take the bankruptcy "means test" to determine whether your disposable income is sufficient to repay some portion of your debt.
Type of Debt: bankruptcy can eliminate certain types of debts including, credit card debt, medical or hospital bills, mortgage debt, and/or automobile debt. However, filing chapter 7 bankruptcy does not mean you get to keep your home or automobile if there are valid outstanding liens on this property. Bankruptcy can eliminate your personal liability to repay this debt, but the lien will survive. Thus, you will be required to keep making your regular monthly payments if you wish to retain certain property. Filing bankruptcy allows you to "redeem" certain property such as your automobile. In a nutshell, this means you can pay the creditor the current fair market value of the vehicle instead of the current balance (which may be significantly higher than the current value).

Who is not a good candidate for bankruptcy?

Individuals who do not meet the above criteria can consider chapter 13 bankruptcy or debt settlement.
Filing chapter 13 bankruptcy can allow you to retain property beyond the applicable bankruptcy exemptions, but you will be required to make monthly payments to the bankruptcy trustee for 3-5 years.
Debt settlement can be an attractive option if you have relatively high assets or income, or a low amount of debt (>$10,000 or below). Debt settlements are agreements to pay less than the full balance owed. Individual debt settlements can vary, but are typically between 20-50% of the balance owed.

Is bankruptcy a last resort?
Depends. Some people can avoid filing bankruptcy by agreeing to debt settlements with their creditors or by pursing creditors and debt collectors who violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The key is to plan as early as possible. This means before you default on credit card debt or shortly after defaulting on credit card debt. You need to know your rights before dealing with abusive debt collectors.

Debt collection harassment is a serious issue. If you are receiving unwanted collection calls, or if debt collectors are sending you abusive harassing, or threatening collections letters, you may be entitled to damages against abusive creditors or debt collectors. Some individuals have eliminated thousands of dollars in debt and recovered thousands more against creditors and debt collectors who violate federal consumer protection laws. You should speak to a knowledgeable consumer protection lawyer to learn about your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Our Michigan bankruptcy and consumer lawyers are happy to answer any questions you have. Please contact us at (313) 415-5559. We have offices conveniently located in Southfield, Michigan and Dearborn, Michigan.

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HOW TO DISPUTE CREDIT REPORT ERRORS

Check your credit report for errors

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CREDIT REPORT

WHAT TO DO ABOUT CREDIT REPORT ERRORS

Disputing YOUR CREDIT REPORT

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I DISPUTE MY CREDIT REPORT?

TCPA LawYER: Automatic Telephone Dialing System

What is the telephone consumer protection act?

SHOULD I FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY?

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