Remove a voluntary repo

Work directly with the credit bureau since they are the ones holding and providing your information to everyone.

If that doesnt work then I would try to get a deletion letter from the Creditor
or you can do both

Hi alycedunlap!

Welcome to forums!

Debt validation letter is generally sent to creditor or the collection agency who claim that you own the debt. I don't think you would be able to send this letter to the credit bureau. You should write a letter to your credit bureau mentioning the item that you want to dispute. Demand a return receipt of the letter from the bureaus. You should mention your name, social security number and address in the letter for verification.

Feel free to ask if you've further queries.

Sussane

Thanks! It's only reported with Experian and I understand disputes with them have to be online. We did an online dispute and just selected "Account Paid in Full"....it was the closest option I could find. I was surprised it didn't give us any place to write a response or explination. So do I understand this correctly, they will contact the creditor asking if the account has a balance owed and if there is no response, the account will be updated?

"So do I understand this correctly, they will contact the creditor asking if the account has a balance owed and if there is no response, the account will be updated?"


alyce - that is correct

Are you trying to remove the voluntary repo or are you trying to show a zero balance is owed?

You can not get it removed unless the car dealer writes to the credit bureau and says it should never have been on the credit report in the first place.

If you are trying to get the credit report to show it has a zero balance and nothing is owed, the car dealer needs to confirm that in writing with the credit bureau also.

If you have a debt validation letter that says nothing is owed and the balance is zero, that should do the trick to get vthe credit report to show a zero balance. That same letter will not get them to take it off the credit report because there was a voluntary repo and that is what it shows.

"You can not get it removed unless the car dealer writes to the credit bureau and says it should never have been on the credit report in the first place. "
This is incorrect. If the creditor fails to respond the CRA will report the item in your favor. So if you dispute that it wasn't yours and the credit fails to respond then the CRA will remove it

"If you are trying to get the credit report to show it has a zero balance and nothing is owed, the car dealer needs to confirm that in writing with the credit bureau also. "
again if they fail to respond the CRA will show a zero balance

I'd like to get it removed completely. My husband called the car dealership (as I mentioned before it's a little "tote the note" place) and asked if they could remove it. He's purchased 2 cars from them since then with no trouble. They said "sure! No problem! Just have the credit bureau send us a letter and we won't respond and that will take care of it"

This is what his credit report shows:

Date Open 01/2004
Account Number XXX
Account Status Merchandise was taken back by credit grantor; there may be a balance due
Ownership U
Monthly Payment
Balance Amount
Balance Date 09/30/2004
High Balance / Credit Limit
Prior Delinquency
Past Due Amount
Comment Closed

If they do not respond, the credit bureau has no choice but to leave it on the credit report.

The car dealer MUST respond and MUST state in their response that it was not a repo and should not have been repprted by them as such. The credit bureau can only change something if the car dealer responds.
A lack of respinse does not authorize the credit bureau to change anything.

jveenstra it CLEARLY states this when you are disputing

It is a Federal law FCRA that they must respond within 30days or the item will be updated to what you have disputed it or deleted if you're asking for it to be removed

Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information.
Inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually within 30 days. However, the consumer reporting agency is not required to remove accurate derogatory information from your file unless it is outdated (as described below) or cannot be verified. A consumer reporting agency may continue to report information it has verified as accurate.


http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/fraudIdentityTheft/yourRights/federalBillRights.page

You are undoubtedly correct and what happens when it gets reported again a month or so later because the reporting company still has it on their reporting mechanism, however they do that, or shows up again months later.

Does the client keep doing the 30 day trick or is it better they get something in writing they can show to anyone anytime

NEVER had I saw a closed account come back on someone's credit report

If it's open and you're disputing late payments then it may come back but i never dealt with that.

Probably does not happen a lot. I have seen it, which is why I asked.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you or anyone thinks that something that was reported properly should be removed because the reporting source does not respond in 30 days, then you and I are made of different stuff. Is it legally something that can happen, yes. If the company responds to or 3 times that it should not be removed so we keep sending them letters and finally they do not answer on the 4th or 5th letter and it was removed because they did not answer in 30 days from the 4th letter, was that proper? You say yes. I say no. Did someone successfully use the sytem to their advantage-Yes.

What is proper: Get the letter from the car dealer saying they reported it error and it should not be on the credit report.

John - I didn't say if it was proper or not

You're making claims here in which you were wrong
It sounds like you're not experienced in this line of work and I would recommend that you read through this forum to get a better grasp of credit repair.

One error in a credit item can be disputed. If you deal with credit repair you would know that a high percentage of negative items have something INACCURATE about it. If the OP has something inaccurate on the credit report then they can dispute it till their face turns blue.

Also, if you call asking a creditor to write a letter to remove something from the CRA PROPER than that is double standards.

If I was a car dealership that will finance their new car...I would want to know about that repo that happened within the 7yr mark.

THE REAL PROPER thing to do will be to tell the person ...WAIT 7yrs from the last negative date till it falls off or dispute it if something is inaccurate

You can't have it both ways.

That was my original plan but I guess they were looking for what would be easiest for them. I certianly don't want to lie and say it's not ours or anything like that. I simply asked for it to be removed as a "goodwill gesture" It's 6 years old and he's been a good customer since then.

Thank you all for the information.

Since the account status shows "Merchandise was taken back by credit grantor", I think it will be best to just ask the dealership again, to remove it.