• My current address
• Previous addresses
• Employers
• Years lived at previous addresses
• Years worked at current employer
• Birthdate
• Public Records
• Collections

I will not be listing my personal information, EXCEPT for the creditor who reported fraudulent information about me in retaliation for my exercising my rights five years ago. However, I will explain how and why these items I mentioned are in error.

• Current address? WRONG!
  (How can they have me living at my old address when they mailed my report to my current address?)

  Regardless, they have me living at an address I moved away from 5 years ago. I would later discover that the reason why they have this address is because it was where I lived the last time a creditor reported something negative to the credit bureau about me.
  (I'll go into detail about this particular creditor later)

• Previous addresses? I don't think so!

  For one of my previous addresses, they have me living somewhere with a General Delivery address.
  (Does that mean I lived in a cardboard box somewhere?)

  Next they listed the address of the house next door to me from 8 years ago.
  (Wonder if my old next door neighbors are listed as living at my old address from 8 years ago on their credit report!)

• Employers

  The credit bureaus claim that my husband worked for a company called All For One. We looked everywhere and could not find any mention of a company by that name anywhere.
  (Maybe they think my husband was one of the Three Musketeers!)

• Years lived at Previous Addresses

• According to the 3 major credit bureaus, I'm be-boppin' all over the place, and I 'm even living in two places at once!

• Years Worked at Current Place of Employment

  They have my husband listed as working at his current job for the past 20 years. He's been there less than 5 years in reality.

  (Yes, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, "in reality" means in the real world where I am currently living, not to be confused with one of my previous addresses.) Anyway, I told my husband that I think his boss should be paying him what he would be making 15 years from now. He should also be able to retire with a really big pension for being a loyal employee for 20 years.

• Date of Birth

  TransUnion has my husband listed as being 8 months older than he actually is. (Maybe his birth certificate is wrong!)
  Not one to nit-pick, but the point is that there isn't much on the credit report that is CORRECT!

• Public Records This one's a doozy!

  I don't mean to be long-winded, but this one takes a little explaining.

  I used to live in an apartment complex owned by a Property Management Group named * Emess Management *. One day, five years ago, Emess Management slipped a note under our door that stated a request for tenants to pay an additional $25 dollars to pay for the owner's Annual License Fee. Emess Management said that they had already paid this fee to the city and needed to pass on the increase in their Annual License Fee to their tenants.

  Immediately, a red flag went up and I proceeded to call places to ask if tenants were required to pay for this fee. Every place I called said a big fat, "NO!". I wrote a little note of my own back to Emess Management and explained what I had learned and added that it would have to be included in my rental agreement. Well, you wouldn't believe the trouble that followed because I refused to pay this 'fee'.

  First, there were the 'reminders' from Emess Management that I had not yet paid this Annual License Fee of theirs. Then their 'reminders' included threats of late charges. I still wouldn't pay. Why should I? I don't care if it was one dollar more than what my lease stated. This property management group owns 6 apartment complexes. The one we lived in had a market value of over 5 million dollars! They couldn't afford their own fees? Please!

  Anyway, wouldn't you know the first time I paid my rent later than I usually did, Emess Management went down to the Municipal Court and filed a Landlord-Tenant Complaint. Have you ever seen one of these? First, the scumbags filled out the complaint saying that we owed one month's rent we had already paid. Then they had the nerve to put down the next month's rent complete with the late charge, before the rent was even due. I looked carefully at the complaint and noticed that after adding up their totals they claimed we owed, I noticed a 25 dollar difference in the total sum. However, this mysterious 25 dollars was not explained on the complaint. Do you know why? Because they aren't supposed to demand that tenants pay for their Annual License Fee!

  Anyway, to make a long story short, this complaint showed up on my credit file, even though I showed up on the day of the hearing listed on the complaint, showed my receipts, told them about the additional 25 dollars they were trying to collect, and then proceeded to think this issue was resolved. Well, it wasn't. But I only found that out last month, 5 years after this happened!

• Collections

  To top it all off, they also placed part of this complaint in a 'collection' account they are trying to get. Unfortunately for Emess Management, they got sloppy. They reported to the credit bureaus that this 'collection' account was first opened in March of 1996. Sorry, but I have a rental agreement (the original lease) that says we moved in on August 1, 1996. Now, WE are headed for Municipal Court!

  I am in the process of exercising my consumer rights for Emess Management violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by reporting fraudulent information to the credit bureau about a debt I DO NOT OWE! Fortunately for me, I kept every stinking piece of paper, including the lease, and the demands and threats for their Annual License Fee, that I received from Emess Management over 5 years ago. I have all the paperwork to back up what I'm saying. I guess I had a feeling that this would come back to haunt me one day!

I have started a new page that explains the Landlord-Tenant Complaint issue. Anyone who has ever rented an apartment will probably appreciate this information I am sharing. The page is brand new so check back often for updates.

1. Save receipts, contracts, paid bills, ANYTHING else you ever get in writing!

   This is especially important for dated material and anything with signatures. Even if you have to hold these things for 10 years, so what? It's only paper. Keep them in the basement or the shed in the yard. Eventually, you'll forget they're there, unless you need them one day. You'll be glad to have them if you ever do need them, as I did. It's the most important thing you can do where your credit is concerned.

   I used to laugh at my husband for saving receipts and paystubs that were years old when we first got married, but not anymore. I found out the hard way that he was the smart one. Now I don't care if I have to store papers in every room in my house, I will never throw away a slip of paper that lists something I paid for, anything that has my name on it connected with a bill or notice, etc. The list is endless of what I will keep from now on.

   Most important, if you ever rent, save ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you get from your landlord or rental office! Take pictures when you move in and again when you move out.

   Now that you have all those papers to back you up:

2. Request your Credit Report at least once a year; more often if you noticed errors on your credit report in the past.

   It doesn't cost much to get a 3-in-1 from all three major credit bureaus, and it's worth it because the same things aren't reported to all of them. If you're denied credit, even for a stupid department store credit card, you're entitled to a FREE credit report.

   WHEN YOU GET YOUR CREDIT REPORT, LOOK IT OVER LIKE YOU'RE GUS GRISSOM FROM CSI, OR PRETEND YOU'RE A SCIENTIST LOOKING FOR MICRO-ORGANISMS.

   There will be discrepancies, you can count on it.

3. Look at the addresses, current and former. Also look at the dates they list you as living at those addresses. If there are addresses on your credit report, and you never lived at any of them, dispute them! If the dates of when they say you were living at correct addresses are wrong, dispute them!

4. Look at the employer information. If they have you working at a place where you were never employed, dispute it! If they have you working at the right place, but the dates you worked there aren't right, dispute them!
   Now here comes the most important part!

5. Look at the credit history. This would be where they would list any judgments, collections for bills unpaid or not paid in full, like utilities and credit card balances. If you see an account that doesn't look familiar to you, dispute it! If there is an account that was yours, and maybe you owed a balance, check the date. If the date is wrong on the account, dispute it!
   

   As I explained earlier, Emess Management reported to the credit bureau that we opened an account with them in March of 1996. And there really is only one thing wrong with that:

   WE DIDN'T MOVE INTO THEIR STUPID APARTMENT UNTIL AUGUST OF THAT YEAR!

   Talk about fraud and abuse! I'm glad they own properties worth millions of dollars. They won't be able to tell the judge that they can't pay what I ask for in damages. Double :)!

   

   Anyway, getting back to scrutinizing your credit report, If there is a collection account, make sure the credit bureaus list the name, address and phone number of the collection agency. If they don't list it, get it from them. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says it's your right to get it from them. One collection agency I contacted to dispute an account told me that they no longer had the account. They said they sold it to another collection agency.

   So, pay special attention to the dates the credit bureaus list your accounts as whether it's the date opened, reported, sent for collection, closed, etc. If something isn't exactly right, dispute it!

6. Also very important, NEVER contact a collection agency, by phone, email, or snail mail. They'll update your account and the next time they report it to the credit bureaus, they'll say the current date of the account is the date they received the phone call or letter or email from you. It is supposed to be illegal for them to do so, but this practice runs rampant among collectors.

   I screamed at a woman from Sears on the phone about a bill that belonged to my husband before we were married over 15 years ago. She was talking really fast and sounded illiterate, so I told her that she was not to call me again and that it must be nice for her to know a second language! Then I hung up on her. That account from Sears never appeared on my husband's credit report again. I get a little upset at stupid people but sometimes anger works.

7. Disputing information on your credit bureaus is nowhere near as easy as they make it sound. I put a nice little package together with copies of documents to back up my claim and shipped it off by certified mail with a return receipt requested to Experian. Someone at Experian signed for the package and I received my receipt. A week later, Experian sent me a notice saying that they investigated and the info I disputed will remain. I called the courthouse regarding this earlier matter with the slumlord I rented from and they told me that Experian never contacted them about my disputing the matter. I then called Experian and you're never gonna believe it, but they claim they DIDN'T receive any mail from me. I went back and forth with some incompetent on the phone and he says to me that the address given on the Experian website AND on the form they tell you to mail back to Experian, is incorrect. He told me there was no one at the PO Box to sign for something sent certified. Well, I figure there's another lawsuit in there somewhere. But I'm going after the big guns first. The mailman at the post office said that if someone signed for it, that's legal proof that someone received it. They can't say they didn't get it.

8. So, if you dispute items on your credit report, send it certified to the credit bureaus. A few days after you find out the date your mail was received by the credit bureau, call them and ask them how they're doing on their investigation of your disputes. If you have the paper in your hand that says they received your mail, and the credit bureaus deny it, sue them!

9. Don't pay someone else to fix your credit, fix errors on your credit file, or get you out of debt. You can do it yourself. It will take time and a LOT of paperwork, but it will be worth the effort not to have to pay someone to do it. I also wanted to mention that unless you have a lawyer you regularly have dealings with, don't waste your time looking for a lawyer who represents consmers with 'credit problems'. I searched on the Internet for a lawyer specific to my needs. I spent an hour and a half going back and forth to his office, only for him to tell me that the errors on my credit file are 'minor' and not worth his time. I will not put his name here, but if you have any questions about lawyers and you happen to live in the area, I will tell you not to bother with this clown. Being denied credit since 1999 because of fraudulent information reported on my credit file is not minor to me.

Here are a few places to read about credit, your rights, and what to do they are violated:

Fair Credit Reporting Act
Explains your credit rights

Credit InfoCenter
With sample letters to send to credit bureaus and colleciton agencies

Federal Trade Commission's Website on Credit
You can file a complain with the FTC here.
If enough people file a complaint about the same thing, maybe they'll finally do something. Then again, maybe they won't.

The 3 major credit bureaus are online. They are not very helpful but it's a starting point if you want to get a credit report.

Experian

Fair Credit Reporting Act

TransUnion

This page is being worked on! Lots more to come!

Email me at bfmuldrake@comcast.net to let me know about your experiences in these matters

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Who's to Blame for 9/11? How about the homicidal psychopaths who flew planes into the Twin Towers? Shame on the 9/11 Commission!

Keep God in Our Country

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No More Michael Moore

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Smoking Banned From Public Places

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Stupid Beer Commercials

Growing up with an alcoholic father, I can't help thinking how these commercials send the wrong message. It makes people think it's cool to act stupid and so I have a few ideas for some ads I would like to see the beer distributors show to the public.

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More of my opinion on the 9/11 Commission

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American Idol Goofed Big Time!
This is a page I put up after the 3rd season finale of American Idol!

Landlord-Tenant Complaints
Has your Landlord filed a Complaint against you? Has a Judge awarded a Judgment against you in favor of your Landlord? Then, you're not alone. Read my story!

Where Is Harry Kalas When You Really Need Him?
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