I blogged a month or so about credit bureaus. Guess what, there’s more!

We’ve been paying off all the negative garbage, and have it all finished. Really. It took six months or so. We watched our credit scores rise, then POOF. Nothing.

Checked the reports again. SOME of the items are still there, showing balances. Seriously, what the heck?

Between us, we have six reports – one each, from each credit bureau. Mine, for example shows a certain joint account as “paid, zero balance”. My husband’s shows the same account as owing almost $9000. Same credit bureau.

I called them all. Well, two of them. One only accepts disputes online or by mail. One had a voice message which said to please go online or mail them any disputes. The third one actually sent me to a representative. In India. Her name was Sue. Right.

Anyway, she checked. She said she’d enter a dispute. This will be the FOURTH dispute for this account, over a two-month period. Apparently, so they say, they call the creditor and ask the status. Fine and dandy.

So, what? The creditor tells them that a JOINT account is ONLY paid on MY report? And they believe that? Doesn’t anyone see this?

So they mark it as “investigated” and “no change”. Seriously? It was paid TWO MONTHS ago!

Furthermore, the bureaus apparently do not communicate with each other…at all. Their reps tell me that some creditors report to one or two bureaus, some to all three, and so forth. Fine, I GET that. But why would a creditor tell each bureau something different, if/when they report to more than one?

How in the world can one account state, in turns, that an item is “paid”, “derogatory”, and “charged-off” – IF the creditor makes the reports? Does the creditor not know the status? If they don’t, they should just mark it all as “unknown” or, better yet, “paid”!

Again, who thought up this whack system? Who made the credit bureaus gods? And Fair Isaac – well, he’s just plain wrong. And vindictive. And a host of other things that I probably shouldn’t print.