I've had credit for almost two years now... I took my chances and tried to get a laptop financed at Sony Style and was declined... I wasn't surprised at all because I heard that for auto loans you have to have established credit for two years before they consider you, and also because I'm a student my income is pretty low. But then just out of curiosity I decided to find out what my credit score is. It has dropped significantly even though I've been extremely responsible. But what caused the huge blow to my score? Look what is on my file...

 

Who the hell is CBCS? I'm not a big fan of acronyms...Im a fan of knowing who the hell the company is that I supposedly declined to pay. For example: when I go down the list, it says OLD Navy and USBank. Both of which are in good standing but the person Ive supposedly been evading has some shady ass acronym like CBCS? F$%^ that. According to google it's just a collection agency. Shouldn't they be telling me who they're collecting for?

 

Im taking care of it first thing in the morning.

 

Check your credit report regularly!!!

If someone else had your credit info since April, probably you'd be seeing a lot more than just one item for $142.60. I speculate it's an error on the part of the credit reporting agency, where someone entered someone else's info against your name.

I looked up the company and there is a lot of complaints from people with the same issue.

I had someone get my credit card number and buy online porn with it once.

David, post your social security and bank account numbers and we will help you out. Also, your mother's maiden name.

 

 

 

;)

David, post your social security and bank account numbers and we will help you out. Also, your mother's maiden name.

 

 

 

;)

 

 

LOL!!!!!!!!11!!

 

Also, the city in which you grew up, oh wait, nevermind!

David, I'm sorry to hear about that that sucks really bad, but you know you can dispute it - right?

Identity theft is no laughing matter!

 

I guess I can understand why everyone would want to be me though.

Identity theft is no laughing matter!

 

I guess I can understand why everyone would want to be me though.

 

They are just using you for your money, you dumb ho.

LMAO!

David, just so you know, CBCS didn't put it on your credit bureau, the credit bureaus did.  CBCS reports data to the bureaus, gives the name/address/ssn/previous address/whatever else they have on file.  The credit bureaus then take that data and try to match it to an existing profile.  That's all proprietary software, and CBCS has absolutely nothing to do with it.  And in fact, it's extremely likely that you're not the victim of identity theft at all, but just have personal data that's a bit too similar to someone else's.

 

You can file a Consumer Dispute Verification, and that will probably clear it all up, within 30 days tops.  Unless it's actually your debt - some utility bill you forgot about or something.  By the way, I think you're right, they should be reporting the originator of the debt...

 

I had someone get my credit card number and buy online porn with it once.

 

Um, er, um, yeah, that's it!  That happened to me too!

Yeah, problems with credit reports are no fun.  When I co-oped for Cincinnati Bell Wireless, I was issued a company phone--no change for local use, but changed for use out of the area.  While I had the phone I had no problems, I paid the monthly bill for any roaming charges.  When I left Cincinnati Bell, I turned my phone in to my boss like I was supposed to and paid my last bill and all was well, or so I thought.  However, little did I know that my wonderful boss never deactivated the phone and simply handed it out to the next co-op (some time after I had left and after my mail forwarding had ended, as I had moved to Dayton).  So apparently the next guy was using it and the bills for the roaming charges were being sent to me but I was never getting them. 

 

I had no reason to suspect anything until one day I got a call from a collections agency and they tried to collect on it.  Obviously, I was like WTF.  The collections agency said my time to contest the charges had past and really they had no interest in helping me, as they make money on what they collect.  So I called Cincinnati Bell and was finally able to get the charges dropped.  Once again, all is well, right?  Nope.  A year or two later I go to apply for my mortgage and there it is, still on my credit report.  The mortgage officer said it wasn't a big deal and didn't really effect my credit score that much and even with it removed it wouldn't change my mortgage (except maybe they would approve me for more than the already-higher-than-I-could-even-afford-amount that already approved me for).  He said that unless I was really patient and ready to be on the phone a lot, it would probably be best just to avoid any calls from the collections agency (they haven't called since, but if they do actually talk to you, it resets the amount of time they have to collect) and then wait however many years and just let it drop off my credit.  I'm sure it's not the best financial advice, but I really don't want to deal with the collections agency and try to explain it to them.

 

I certainly don't mean to discourage you, David, but I'm certainly glad it is not me!  Hopefully it won't be a big deal and you'll easily be able to get it taken care of.  And who knows, if you have a good experiece taking care of it, I might even be encouraged to do something about my situation.  :-D

David,

   I'm going through something similar. It is a serious pain in the ass. They don't really write an instruction book on how to clear this crap up but it obviously takes forever, and no one seems to want to help. It all comes down to the fact that someone has to pay the debt no matter whether it's your fault or not.

  Here's my situation:

    About 8 years ago while living in Tucson Arizona I looked at my credit report and noticed that I was delinquent on a Montgomery Wards account...but... the problem was I never had a Montgomery Wards account. Now around that time Montgomery Wards was just about out of business and I was having a hell of a time trying to resolve the problem. Eventually I forgot all about it. Well then a few more years went by before I checked my credit report again. When I checked it, I noticed that a collection agency had picked up the account. When I called them, they said they couldn't do anything for me and that I would have to talk to Montgomery Wards to resolve it. I asked her " how was I supposed to talk to someone at Montgomery Wards when it's no longer in bussiness?" and she said she couldn't help and that if I thought that I was a victim of fraud that I could send them a police report and they'll get back with me.

Well I didn't think I was a victim of fraud because the original charge was only $50. Why would someone steal my identity and only charge $50 to the card? But I filed a police report and sent it in anyway. I never heard back from the collection agency and the next time I checked my credit report, the account was gone.

Now, fast forward to february of this year. I now live in Cincinnati. I get a letter from a collection agency called 'Worldzen' claiming that I owe them $138.09 but only had to pay $82.85 to settle the account. I'm thinking "this is bull-shit". I call them and get the same run around I got from the other agency. I told them that I sent a police report to the previous collection agency and they said it doesn't matter because they don't have it. They said that they would put my account in the 'being disputed' category and for me to send another  police report.

  That's not all, on a recent credit report  one of the credit bureau's "TransUnion" had my address as being in Mission Kansas ( I never lived in Kansas ) and my last name beginning with a G when my last name actually begins with a C.

As a matter of fact, the letter that Worldzen sent to me had the same error with my last name but my address was correct. I called TransUnion and they told they couldn't help me with the debt but could change my address. Gee Thanks. :finger:

  Now it's October and it's still not resolved and I am still debating on whether to just pay the freakin $82.85 or keep fighting.

  I haven't filed a police report because I was told that I may have to file through the Tucson Police Department since that is where it all started.

Sorry, for writing the book. I just wanted to let you know your not alone in this fight against creditors. :box:

Even if it were your debt, Montgomery Wards has been out of business for a while now...derogatory information is not allowed to report for any longer than seven years from what's called the "Date of First Delinquency."  Basically, that's the first bill that wasn't paid.

 

If the account shows a date later than 2001 (when the last Wards store closed), that means the account may have been re-aged, which is illegal, and could entitle you to somewhere around $1200 for an FCRA violation...

No shit? I knew about the statute but I thought it reset when it changed hands. I'll have to look in to this.

  Thanks Riverviewer!

cincykid,

You should be able to file a fraud report with the credit bureaus.  They might be more responsive than the bottom-feeder collection agency.

Actually, reading back through your story, the credit bureaus look like they have nothing to do with this debt - you said they have an incorrect previous address, which you can dispute, but they aren't reporting the account anymore, right?  There's no Montgomery Wards tradeline on your cbr...which means they've got nothing to do with the debt.

 

Ohio has a 15 year statute of limitations on written contracts, which is probably why you're still getting letters on it (despite it not being your debt - for whatever reason, they don't know or don't believe that).  They could, in theory, take you to court over the debt.  But a few things to bear in mind:

 

1) They aren't going to get anything with your signature on it.  This means two things:

  a) If they find a piece of media with a signature on it (a charge slip, an original application), it won't be your signature, and it'll prove your case, not theirs.

  b) If they can't produce a piece of media with a signature on it, the applicable statute of limitations would become the "open" statute of limitations, which is six years in Ohio.  The case would get thrown out.

 

2) They aren't going to sue you, because in Ohio they're going to have to lay out somewhere around $150+ just on court costs, to try to collect $138, on a disputed debt that they can't substantiate in court?  That's just throwing money away.

 

So all you have to do to end this is send them a Cease and Desist letter.  That tells them that you demand they stop all contact with you, unless they intend to sue you.  They're allowed to send you one follow-up letter acknowledging your Cease and Desist letter, but that's it - if they call you or letter you again, you can take them to court for FDCPA violations.

 

Definitely do NOT pay the money - you should never pay money you don't owe...all it does is reward the unethical for being unethical.

By the way, here's a good site to go for to get more information:

 

http://www.budhibbs.com/

 

Bud Hibbs is definitely a slimeball himself - he isn't out there to help people who don't owe anything get out of trouble - he's there to help folks who do owe money figure out a way to skip out on their bills.  He's slime...but, he's slime with some great information, very helpful.

 

just a guess that its cincinnati bell collection service, and that you had a phone in your name sometime in college?  look into it