Why do credit bureaus believe furnishers over consumers?
Why do credit bureaus believe furnishers over consumers?
Today, I wanted to talk with you about why do credit bureaus believe the creditor, or the debt collector, or a “furnisher” over you when you do a dispute?
You believe there’s something wrong with your credit report.
So, you reach out to the credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) and tell them there is a problem with your Capital One account, your Portfolio Recovery account, or other debt collection account.
You tell them there is a problem and you specify exactly what the problem is.
Then, the bureaus go to the debt collector, credit card company, mortgage company, etc. and ask them about the error.
Then, the furnisher claims that the consumer is not telling the truth.
Who do the credit bureaus believe?
Nine times out of ten, the bureaus believe the furnisher.
I’ve been suing these credit bureaus and furnishers for many years. Based on my own observations, there are a couple of reasons why they do this.
Reason 1: They assume you are lying.
The bureaus assume you are using some credit repair business that is terrible, evil, and dishonest.
This is an incorrect statement. There are some bad credit repair businesses just like there are bad credit bureaus and bad debt collectors.
It’s just an industry but they want to paint everyone with a terrible reputation.
So, if the consumer is using a credit repair place, they must be liars and cheats.
Even if the consumer is not using a credit repair place, they still assume the consumer must be the liar and the cheat.
Reason 2: You are not their “customer.”
The credit bureaus look at these conflicting accounts and say, “Do we believe the consumer, who doesn’t really make us any money? Or do we believe the furnishers (Bank of America, Nation Star, LVNV) who bring enormous amounts of money to us?”
The furnisher is their customer, not the consumer.
They do not care about you because you are not their customer.
The bureaus want to side with their customer who pays them large amounts of money.
Once you realize this, it is obvious why they would believe the furnisher over you.
I’ve heard these guys give speeches and presentations saying that these dispute letters are full of lies.
They say consumers will send blank envelopes and then try to trick the bureaus by making stuff up.
Really? They think consumers are sending them blank envelopes by certified mail?
This is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
But this is their mentality.
So what do you do?
Make sure your disputes are legitimate.
Your disputes should be accurate and totally above board.
Point out factual errors, inconsistencies, incomplete information.
Even when you give them proof, the credit bureaus still say they do not believe you.
We provide the dispute and a copy of the judge’s order.
Still, they say they will keep the account on the report.
So, we sue them.
They say we should have given them proof that we won our previous case.
We did. We sent them the court order.
Then they try to claim this court order was forged.
They always assume whatever the consumer sends in is just made up.
We ask if they called the court to verify the order.
They did not.
Did they look at the online court system to see if the order was true?
They did not.
Did they take ANY action to determine whether it was true or false?
No. They just assumed it was false.
They always assume that the consumer is lying.
The credit bureaus use this circular reasoning.
The reason they know consumers lie is because consumers lie.
So consumers lie, we know they lie, so everything they send us the lie.
Here’s a real-life example of how this happens in a lawsuit:
Once we dealt with a prominent credit bureau and a prominent cell phone company.
They were reporting that we owed them money, but this was wrong.
We even had a letter from the cell phone company saying, “We’re sorry, we made a terrible mistake. You don’t owe this money. We deeply apologize for this. Please let this letter serve as proof that you do not owe this debt.”
But the debt still wouldn’t come off our credit report.
We disputed the debt and sent in our letter as proof.
They didn’t fix it.
We sued both the cell phone company and the credit bureau.
Their response? “We assumed that was a fraudulent document.”
Why? Because the document was in the consumer’s favor.
Did they even check their own records? The letter had their name on it.
Despite such obvious proof to the contrary, this is their mentality.
When you send in a legitimate dispute pointing out errors, inconsistencies, incomplete information, and they don’t fix it, sue them.
You sue them and let them make these absurd excuses.
That’s fine.
Let them make these dumb statements.
Let them say, “Well, we assumed all court orders sent in by consumers are fraudulent and we assume it so much we won’t lift a finger to check and see if they’re legitimate.”
Okay. I hope Equifax, Experian, Transunion, Innovis, and all these credit bureaus are comfortable with that.
Because that would make me very uncomfortable to stand in court and claim that I assume all court orders are fraudulent even though I did nothing to investigate or verify the document.
The same goes for these furnishers.
So, they disbelieve you and they believe the furnisher because the furnishers their customer. They just assume you’re lying.
And you know what? You can’t change their mind.
When you sue them and you’ve got proof that what they did is wrong, this changes their mind.
Well, maybe it doesn’t change their mind.
But they do have to open their checkbook to you and fix your credit report.
So, I guess it doesn’t really matter what they think.
The more they do bad things, the more money they will have to pay out to the people that sue them.
Eventually, they’ll say, “You know what? Maybe this strategy of assuming every consumer is lying isn’t a good business move.”
Hold these guys accountable.
That’s the only thing that will change their mind.
If you live in Alabama and you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.
We would be glad to help you in any way we can.
You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447, or you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!