Thursday, October 19, 2006
Reader mail: Comments from a former Experian dispute agent
Hello Christine,
I wanted to commend you for the battle you are wagering against the CRAs. It is indeed an uphill battle. I ran across your posted depositions with Experian employees while searching for an address for Experian.
It was definitely like pulling teeth for you to get any understandable answers during the depositions. I had a hard time distinguishing if you are an attorney or just a citizen representing yourself in this action, but whichever it is, please do not stop putting pressure on these businesses.
You are so right about nobody caring about the little people. This country, from the top down, is geared toward businesses and not the people. That is NOT what this country is supposed to be all about. The people themselves are so complacent and gullible, it’s sad.
I am sure that Experian hand picked the people that you were to depose. I’m sure they purposely picked people that would not know the answers to your questions so that they wouldn’t be lying when answering “I don’t know”. Common sense tells you they do have people that would know the answers to those questions. How convenient they were not the ones offered for deposition.
There is, indeed, loads of incorrect information on a lot of the people housed in Experian’s database. While most of it does get reported incorrectly (whether intentional or not) by the creditors, Experian has no desire to go against what the creditors report. It is the creditors that are Experian’s customers, not the consumers. Experian has teams of lawyers making sure they are not breaking any of the FCRA’s laws, or so they say. If they are following the laws, then the laws need to be changed. The consumer doesn’t have a fighting chance.
I say these things Christine because I am an ex employee from Experian. I lasted almost 9 months (3 of which were in training) as a dispute agent before I walked out. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I absolutely hated it when consumers would ask me a question, like a credit score question, and I would have no answer for them. It tore me up inside when someone had an account listed on their report that was truly not their account and they couldn’t get anyone to take it off. The creditor had gone out of business, the consumer could not get in touch with them and still the account would not come off. That is just criminal to me. Until the creditor tells Experian to remove an item it will remain on the report.
I, as a normal person, could no longer work in a business that would do that to people and have no problem with doing it. I care too much. I have morals and ethics. It bothered me so much that I became ill from the stress.
So, now here I am...with no job
But I just couldn’t take it anymore.
Kudos to you Christine. I’m glad there are people like you left in this country. They are definitely few and far between these days. Too bad there isn’t a business I could start up that would actually HELP consumers fight the CRAs. The credit clinics suck. They promise people they can get the negative stuff removed from their reports and they can’t. No more than the consumer can do themselves. Bottom line is: if the creditor says it’s correct, it stays. Experian did stress to its’ employees that they wanted the information contained on the reports to be accurate and all inaccurate information had to be removed, but again, it is “accurate” as long as the creditor says it is whether they are telling the truth or not. The only options for the consumer at that point are to either contact the creditor and get them to report it correctly, put a consumer statement on the account or of course hire an attorney and file suit. Which, of course, they know most people will not have the time or the money to do.
What a shame they have allowed our country to come to this
The reader edited the original email for publication to ensure that Experian cannot identify the ex employee. The CRAs make their employees sign confidentiality agreements and it’s quite possible that a public statement as the above violates the terms of the employment contract. If CRA employees were free to talk about the investigation practices, the CRAs would have to change their practices.
Regarding my depositions, I should of course have filed motions to compel answers and documents. But not being a lawyer and having no money / credit left after building my house, I didn’t.
I really will try to annotate the Experian depositions and post all the exhibits, been having lots of computer problems (sent my main machine to Sager for warranty repairs 6 weeks ago) and everything is such a struggle.
If I hadn’t started building a house, I really would have had to leave the country. The lawsuits are so stressful and sitting at the computer 24/7/360 was causing health problems, they literally kill you with their lies. Physically I feel a lot better now, but I still got so much work to do on my new house and will have to complete it mostly by myself.
I’ll do what I can to document the Experian lies and their way of DELIBERATELY destroying the credit scores of consumers with OLD collections or charge offs with INCORRECT recent late payments and Experian allowing creditors to furnish incomplete data.
INCORRECT recent late payments—MANY creditors report a charge-off every month, resulting in a 90+ day LATE payment rated by credit scoring software as LATE every time the creditor reports. The FICO scores are often lowered over 50 points by these INCORRECT late payments. A correctly reported charge-off from several years ago has little impact on the scores with good current payment history.
I see these INCORRECT RECENT lates in almost EVERY Credit Analysis and while I don’t see it as often, Equifax also allows creditors to report these recent lates.
Experian also allows furnishers NOT to report OLD payment history and then it is often impossible to determine that a charge-off occurred several years ago and it can only be rated according to the incorrect NEWER status date.
Experian sells credit reports to customers KNOWING that they have violated the contract and allow unauthorized persons to use their Experian account to obtain consumer credit reports (Dana Capital).
And they lie, lie and lie again to the courts and in the depositions.
The problem is of course that the LIARS, the Experian attorneys and select employees who are chosen for the depos, have no morals, no ethics and no conscience.
It always comes down to PEOPLE willing to sell their soul for a few dollars.
I know it’s hard to find decent jobs and that it really doesn’t matter which corporation you work for, almost all engage in illegal or at least unethical conduct to maximize profits.
Most courts, legislators and regulators openly support the corporations.
From 10/5/06: Court orders Capital One to file Memorandum re. the $50,000 attorneys fees demand
“Americans didn’t become independent because they sued the Queen, Hitler wasn’t stopped by a court order and the slaves weren’t freed because they voted for freedom.”
Nothing changed since these times. It’s hard for me to accept that in today’s “civilized” world, evil rules and prevails in court and that only violence will make a difference.
This blog has been accessed over 2 million times.
Most reader mail (whatever I find in the junk folder and much gets deleted before I see it) is from people requesting help with their LVNV, American Agencies or whatever collections and credit problems. I’ve had people email entire credit reports for FREE advice. (Email is NOT secure, don’t email your credit reports.)
But for about every 100 freeloaders, I get mail from someone who cares enough to DO something. When “doing something” means quitting a CRA job, that’s quite a sacrifice. And it’s important that these actions are publicized. It’s so encouraging to see that at least a few people still have a conscience.
My next posting is going to be about a reader who is standing up for her rights and publishing her suit and the video deposition.
2003 Suit (appealed, Experian filed credit reports on PACER) • Experian - countless violations • Credit - Collection - Economic News • Reader mail • (0) Comments • Permalink
