I feel like starting this article out like this is some joke, but it’s not. A teacher, firefighter, police officer, and a farmer pick up the phone looking for straight answers about their credit so they can buy a house. There are no straight answers to be found. They all give up and go back to renting. The end
Today I woke up groggy; holiday travel and all. I had some things I had to check on with Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian. It was pretty straightforward stuff. Something that I caused to happen at all three bureaus on three different clients. A credit action in triplicate times three. I should have received the same response from all three bureaus for all three people. I did not. It was a comedy of errors with credit bureau employees who knew nothing except what they were reading on the screen at their desk while talking with such authority. It was super silly.
I quoted Federal Law to the Equifax agent. Equifax followed Federal Law on three accounts and did not on one account. All four accounts were handled the same way with the same letter that the credit bureau received at the same time — the way this letter was written it bound them by Federal Law to do a certain thing, which they did on 3 of the four accounts. I was told by phone answerer #1 that they didn’t follow Federal law that their company policy superseded. I said please, do tell. That sounds awesome. Can I drive as fast as I want because that is my policy? At that point, she just began repeating the same thing over and over. I asked for a supervisor and got one. They said the same things. It did not matter that they followed Federal law on 3 out of the 4 accounts.
I didn’t have to quote Federal Law to Experian. I spoke to a dispute agent who told me that they had received the letter I sent them and that I had to talk to a different department. The Experian agent transferred me to the different department. The special department told me that there was no record of them receiving the letter that caused the first Experian agent to transfer me. I knew they had what they needed, so I asked the same question a different way and got the answer I needed. The only way that I would have gotten the intended results was if they had received the letter I sent that they say they didn’t get, but I got the results I was after. Hold your tongue and say that three times real fast.
I have been helping people solve credit problems since the late 1990s, and I get frustrated. I can’t imagine what happens to someone who just got some great tips from Credit Karma or some message board or the Credit Bureau websites. The bottom line is you have to stop looking for the answer you are looking for and start looking for the truth. How? It starts with questioning everything you are told about credit, credit scores, debt settlement, collections, credit reporting. Start making these so-called experts explain how they know what they know. The first 30 seconds of that conversation you will hear a confident tone in their voice. Once you start pressing in their ignorance will reveal itself. You can feel them squirm through the phone as they become frustrated you don’t believe their version of the truth even though it is not true.
I will probably write ten different articles off of this one. But for now, stop being so agreeable. Come to grips with the fact that most people you will deal with on almost any subject are not very good at their job. Expect more and stop giving up so easy and of course, place a premium on getting the right kind of help. Who do you think gives better advice? Someone who has been a leader in their field for well over a decade, like me. Or would you rather trust someone who knows someone who read about something that might work? Let me help you. If you only have questions and don’t need me to call anyone for you, I will slide my fee. I want you to have my help. I am very good at my job.
Recent Comments