Where to get help with credit history discrepancy?
A credit card I had ten years ago is creating a nightmare for me. Long story short, the credit branch I was with was bought and sold I think three times during the time I had this CC. Somewhere in between theses transfers of ownership a "ghost" account was created. The actual CC has been paid off and closed out, but in my history report, this "ghost" account is showing up and killing my credit score. I tried calling the Financial Institution it shows connected to, but they show no record of it whatsoever. How can I get this cleared from my Credit history?
Public Comments
- Contact the 3 major credit bureaus to fix it!
- there is a radio host in my area. Clark Howard. He has a website you can go to and get more information about your problem. I think you can email his show and they will help you. Maybe even put your story on the radio. www.clarkhoward.com good luck!
- How is this "killing" your score? Is this "ghost" account showing negative information? If so then negative information can only be reported for 7 years from the date of the information. If it is not showing negative information and it is closed then it is not hurting your score. A closed credit card account is no longer taken into account for several factors of your score. If the negative information is showing for longer than 7 years or you just want to try and get it removed. Then you need to send in a dispute to the Credit Reporting Agency that is showing this account. They will then attempt to validate it with the creditor. However, since you said that the creditor has no record of it, the CRA should remove the listing. This will take between 30 and 45 days, depending on how you got your credit report. But if they do remove it, don't be surprised if in fact it does not increase your score by as much as you are hoping.
- Go to annualcreditreport.com and dispute this account with all three bureaus. Through this website you are entitled to a free copy of all three reports under the factact guidelines. If upon investigation they can not validate the account then they must remove it by law. The investigation has to be done within a 30 day period, if not then it has to be removed for this reason.
