Posted on 02/03/2009 5:59:54 AM PST by shove_it
A mistake on your credit report can cost you literally thousands of dollars, especially in this economy. So what can you expect from a big credit bureau if you ask them to investigate and correct the error?
The answer, for many consumers: About 50 cents worth of effort, conducted by offshore workers at third-party firms. Thats just one of the findings from SmartMoneys investigation into why credit-report errors continue to pop up so frequentlyand why consumers often have so much trouble getting them fixed.
To follow what one consumer advocate calls an electronic hot potato, SmartMoney pieced together a depiction of the dispute process through information from trial depositions, internal company memos and the bureaus own employee manualsmuch of which the bureaus and their trade group subsequently confirmed. The process may be efficient, but it remains a mystery to most consumers, and a source of bitterness for some.
[...]
But while consumers might assume that each bureau employs an army of dedicated sleuths who carefully investigate and correct errors, all the bureaus actually process most disputes using a system thats almost entirely automatedand where human beings are involved, theyre often working at a harried pace. The bureaus say the system, dubbed with the Muppety acronym e-OSCAR, is the most efficient way to handle the more than 20,000 disputes a day they receive. In practice, most complaints are electronically zapped straight to the lender, and according to consumer advocates, many lenders respond by simply rereporting the erroneous data.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at smartmoney.com ...
Yep, Im also doing that.
Next to the DemocRATS Bawany Frank, and the others who tried to cover the impending Fannie/Freddie disaster, the CC is the biggest rip-off in history.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.