Our client took out a credit card with a national bank. After suffering financial hardship with his wife’s shop closing and his own employment in jeopardy, he was unable to pay off his several thousand dollar credit card debt. After being in default, our client made the conscious effort to clean up his credit and sought to settle the debt. The bank’s subsidiary settled the debt for a lump sum payment in exchange for marking the debt paid in full.
The Debt, Though Settled, Was Never Removed from Our Client’s Credit Report
Much to our client’s surprise, he noticed on his credit report several months later that this debt was still listed on his credit report as being in default and hurting his credit score. He filed multiple disputes through the credit bureaus and contacted the credit card company explaining and showing how the debt was settled to no avail.
Our client contacted The Consumer Law Group for representation and filed a lawsuit against the bank and two credit reporting agencies for violating the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The bank had violated the FCRA for failing to properly report the debt as being satisfied and two credit reporting agencies were in violation for conducting a less than adequate investigation into the matter.
Prior to trial the case was settled on terms acceptable to all parties.