Ch 13 Credit repair

Submitted by sug642 on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 14:15
Forums

Ch 13 discharged. Can creditors re age accounts by indicating dates pd by court after filing?

Debts that are included in a bankruptcy have special rules in regard to the way they report to the bureaus.

1) They should not be showing a current or past-due balance. The only balances showing should be the open bal/high credit and/or credit limit.

2) They should not be showing a manner of payment or pay-pattern history.

3) The as-of date (date of activity) should be reported as of the date that you filed the bankruptcy.

4) They should be reporting a comment that the debt was "discharged through chapter 13 bankruptcy".

Other than that they really should not be re-aging accounts, or reporting anything that would reveal to what extent the account was delinquent. You might want to dispute the accounts through the credit bureaus, and the creditor will be obligated to correct their records.

PS I have not actually found any laws that state the above - I think it is more or less a policy adopted by the credit bureaus. I got my information from E-OSCAR, who acts as a intermediary processor of credit disputes for all the major bureaus.

Sun, 09/23/2007 - 16:52 Permalink

Thanks a tonne for this info. This was needed. :)

Mon, 09/24/2007 - 06:57 Permalink

Thanks for your informative response. It is very helpful. :wink:

If I send dispute to OC - do I request verification of information and when they can't verify-do I then send their response to the CRA with proof that the account was in Ch 13?

Mon, 09/24/2007 - 11:09 Permalink

In your letter to the OC, I would say two things:
1) Let them know that you know they have a duty to investigate any disputes they receive (ie they cannot simply tell you to go dispute it with the bureaus). Say something like "You will know that FACTA amended the FCRA in 2003 to allow a consumer to make a tradeline dispute directly with a data furnisher."

2)On those grounds, tell them that the account was completed through a Chapter 13 BK and should reflect as much in your credit report. Any remaining balance has been discharged by operation of law and cannot be reported as a delinquent item.

They have 30 days to respond/update your credit report. See what they do. If not to your liking, then write a letter to the bureaus stating that you have disputed the account with the creditor to no avail, and submit your evidence that the creditor is reporting incorrectly.

Tue, 09/25/2007 - 03:03 Permalink

Thank you for your response.
Creditors are reporting 0 balance but the problem to me is they are reporting payments made by the court as date of last activity and isn't that considered re-aging? How do I dispute that?
Any help is very appreciated

Tue, 09/25/2007 - 13:31 Permalink