Experian

[Cactustactical]

Thanks Don. And yes, since my mortgage company said they did not send anything to the credit reporting companies, I wonder if AmEx is just making that "poor payment history" thing up. And it was also interesting that when I mentioned to the Amex rep that I might just cancel the card - they said nothing. I thought that was a bit odd. Normally they'd always try to pitch you something at that point. So if that's true, then it's probably not even worth trying to deal with the "poor history" "issue."

Thanks David.

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Brian,

Amex has been stung by debt defaults over the last 6 months like every other credit card company. They have put a plan into to reduce the amount of cards they have which are credit cards and rely more on their old standby product, charge cards,( paid in full every month). So, they are reducing debt limit on accounts all across their portfolio and also offering $300 incentives to cardmembers to pay off in full and cancel the card. This policy is also reducing debt limits on business accounts based on internal factors. They have hit long time cardmembers with this sort of thing for the last few months and there has been a lot of public complaining. But,t hey aren't budging, because they are trying to reduce their credit card exposure overall.

I believe that your situation has nothing to do with your Experian report, but the one line allows them to reduce their debt exposure by reducing your overall limit according to the plan they have in place.

A relative works for them here in town and has shown me internal memos on what they are doing. If you do some Google searchs on them, you would probably find where there are public complaints about this and their reactions.

[pjb45]

Brian,

Some years ago, I had a permanent residence in one state, moved to work in another, and work transferred me to a third. When I went to apply for a mortgage I had more than 60 negative hits on my credit report. The lending person was in disbelief that I would even try for a loan.

I called every single one of the hits and requested they remove the negative report. Every single one removed their negative hit. So it is possible to fix the report, you just have to go to the supplying of the negative hit and request the removal. They can actually fax or email the removal request.

BTW: I used to be a big fan of Amex. But they have gotten very unreasonable, I dropped them. BTW: if you use a Southwest Credit Card you will gain ticket points. I have paid my daughter titution with an airline credit card. It resulted in a couple of overseas business class airline tickets.

[Rob D]

I totally agree. These three companies that are all but inaccessable to the average Joe have way too much power. It's next to impossible to get ahold of them for anything. I had to help a customer deal with an experian issue last week (she had put an identity theft warning on her account about a decade ago and couldn't get a cell phone without removing it) and it only took the two of us about two hours to get a live person on the phone that could explain the problem.

The problem is that these people don't work for us. They work for the lenders who are worried about their bottom dollar not about one specific customer getting the shaft from the credit agencies. There needs to be much more accountability to consumers. Afterall, it's our information they're selling.

[benos]

I totally agree. These three companies that are all but inaccessable to the average Joe have way too much power. It's next to impossible to get ahold of them for anything. I had to help a customer deal with an experian issue last week (she had put an identity theft warning on her account about a decade ago and couldn't get a cell phone without removing it) and it only took the two of us about two hours to get a live person on the phone that could explain the problem.

The problem is that these people don't work for us. They work for the lenders who are worried about their bottom dollar not about one specific customer getting the shaft from the credit agencies. There needs to be much more accountability to consumers. Afterall, it's our information they're selling.

Well said - thanks.

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[boo radley]

ME TOO.

9 years ago I reordered some checks, and the bank sent them to a previous address...Some scumbag stole them, and has been uttering bad paper here and there - mostly for pizzas - and was a huge pain-in-the ass for me, over the years....A crime like this isn't even on the radar for the Durham, North Carolina Police Department, so I'm left to mail and fax 'affidavits of forgery' from my bank, as best as I can.

Fast forward to now.

Wife and I want to refinance primary mortgage with some other things -- not important. I've always protected my credit score, and it's been over 800, as is hers. Imagine my surprise when the mortgage company says, "sorry -- because of your credit record we'll have to charge 1.75 "discount" points...."

I hit the roof for a couple reasons, and discover:

1) my credit score is mid 600's because of a recent $36.00 collection for some Pappa John's pizza Scumbag slurped on *years* ago. Check was turned over to some collection agency, w/out my knowledge, "Security Check LLC" who *NEVER* contacted me, but simply shit in my credit report with Experian and Equifax. Now, I can file an online dispute, and have 30-45 days in which it MAY or may not get resolved....Sure hope mortgage rates don't go up. Sure hope they find in my favor. How can this crap get added so easily??

TRY finding a human at Experian to talk to.

2) F* the bank for their 'discount points,' and this blind calculation of credit score. It's *crazy*. And it also makes no sense -- somebody is borrowing a couple hundred k, but because of some bounced check for a pizza, bang -- you get to pay a couple grand upfront as a penalty?? Either get the loan, or don't , but what's this upfront nickle-and-diming? If the borrower is a credit risk, DON'T LEND TO HIM, of if you do, why think a few thousand dollars in your pocket makes things fine?

[davidwiz]

Boo - don't call Experian. Send them the dispute via certified mail, return receipt requested and via regular mail. Send the dispute to the company that put the item in your credit report. If the information is wrong and isn't removed, you can sue in state or federal court to seek relief, plus statutory damages and attorney fees.

[cdrissel]

One more reason I do not use credit cards. No credit cards - no need for a FICO score or credit reporting companies. We all need to stop borrowing money.

To quote Dave Ramsey "We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like."

my $.02 (cash)

Edited April 27, 2009 by cdrissel

[JoeLaFives]

I know this is an old rant but I ABSOLUTELY hate Amex. Had an account there for several years. Then one day I get a call from my bank. Apparently AmeX is attempting to cash a $50,024.00 check that I supposedly wrote them to pay off a bill. Course I don't keep 50K in my checking account. We wrote the check for $524.00 to pay that month off. AMex kept insisting that I added the zeros (to what purpose I have no idea) I asked Amex to send me a copy of the check they were trying to cash - well Amex says they destroyed it as thats what they do with all checks that bounce.

It took a YEAR to get Amex to stop trying to cash the check in the wrong amount.

None of this makes sense of course but that's AMEX and to this day I won't go near an AMEX card.

Edited May 6, 2009 by JoeLaFives

[benos]

Thanks for al the support on the Amex hate.

And yes, I was ready to dump them. So I thought, I'll try a Discover card - I've had a few customers tell me they were happy with then. So I applied for a biz card, which was declined. Then I applied for personal card, which was also declined. The reason was there has been too many hits on my credit score recently. Well that's true because in late summer of '08, I restructured my entire business - with new merchant account, 3 new bank accounts with Wells Fargo (who's been awesome BTW), new biz and personal credit cards. So my workaround for now is to just use my biz bank account debit card for transactions that I'd normally use the Amex biz card for. Screw the "points." Times are hard.

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