Urge Congress to STOP Credit Bureaus from Penalizing you for Old medical & Utility collection accounts
- Target:
- US Representatives and Senators, Transunion, Experian and Equifax
- Region:
- United States of America
Every month, we receive notices reminding us to pay our credit cards, auto loan etc. Every month the creditors notify the 3 major national Credit Reporting Companies (Transunion, Experian and Equifax) if our payment was made on time, or if we skipped that month’s payment. If we stop making payments, the loan is moved to collection status. That is fine. We knew it was coming. We were notified.
What’s not acceptable is one of the following scenarios....
- A) We put a deposit on a home we want to purchase. The loan to purchase the home is approved. We are so excited about owning our first home or our dream home. We share our excitement with our family and friends. Brokers and sellers agree on the closing day - the day we will get the keys to our home. A day after we call the movers, we get a call from the mortgage company ...
“We are taking back your approval. Closing is cancelled” Why? Because one of the national bureaus allowed a creditor to bypass the normal reporting of a debt, and allowed Creditor to go straight to report a $25 collection. We have no idea what the collection is for. This collection could be an old utility or medical bill from years ago. Pretty nasty and expensive punishment for forgetting an old bill. This also happens on a refinancing of a mortgage.
- B ) We go into the car dealership with our high credit score. We agree to purchase the car thinking we will get the best rate. Soon we are told we don’t qualify for the auto loan because of a collection that was reported last week, by a Creditor without our knowledge.
Petition to bring fairness to credit reporting
A Credit report is our financial character. We, the undersigned, urge that minor changes be implemented on the reporting of charge offs and other items so that it can better reflect our financial character. A 3 year old $50 mistake, or a forgotten medical charge, should not move us from "GOOD Financial Character" to "unworthy of a loan" or "charge a lot more for loan". That is the label that the Credit scores carry.
A) Collections sent to the Bureaus by Creditors that didn’t report the account from the first day account was open, should stay dormant on the credit report and have NO EFFECT on CREDIT SCORE. We paid that utility company for years, or paid the doctor co-pays for years, and our financial character didn’t benefit from the reporting of those timely payments. Exception: Creditor informs debtor that it intends to restart collection efforts. Proof of service is required and Creditor must report the entire history of debt. No effect on Credit score for 6 months.
B) Medical charge offs, for obvious reasons, should not effect credit scores at all.
C) We should be allowed (1) 30 day late each year with no effect on score. Any other 30 day late should not effect score more than a couple of points per account. If payment is brought up to date the next month, the score should go to its original number.
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The Urge Congress to STOP Credit Bureaus from Penalizing you for Old medical & Utility collection accounts petition to US Representatives and Senators, Transunion, Experian and Equifax was written by Raul Botelho and is in the category Consumer Affairs at GoPetition.