My uncle, without my permission opened a credit card with Continental Finance Company / First Bank of Delaware Acct # XXXX XXXX XXXX 5132 while my mother had allowed him to stay with us. He never used the card according to the issuer however they charged-off a balance which consisted of nothing but their fees. This year I had discovered this account when I was contacted by Evan's Law Associates. I pulled a copy of my credit report to discover he had done this twice in the time he lived with us. My mother did not wish for me to pursue criminal charges against him as it was her brother.in her attempt to make amends for the bad acts of her brother and to prevent me from charging him with this crime she funded payment in full of the accounts. She had asked Evan's Law Associates who represented Riverwalk, the current owner of the account if it would be possible to have the account removed entirely from my credit reports.
Upon review of my credit reports it was determined the account was only reported by Continental Finance Company / First Bank of Delaware. I contacted the original creditor in April and asked if it was correct that the account could be removed from my credit report. The representative stated that it was possible and that the quickest way for this to take place would be to pay them directly. On May 14 the remaining $425.00 was electronically paid through Bank of America online billpay directly to Continental Finance / First Bank of Delaware. Approximately one week later I disputed the account with the credit bureaus as having been paid in full and the credit grantor agreed to delete the account. The original creditor not only denied that they agreed to deletion but verified it as reporting accurately as unpaid. I contacted the Better Business Bureau who got me into contact with Beverly Knotts. Ms. Knotts originally told me that she could not delete the account because they are required to report it per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
I explained to Ms. Knotts that I was very well aware that they could delete it as the Fair Credit Reporting act says that the information they report must be accurate, complete, and verifiable. Then she changed her story to she couldn't because of company policy even though a representative of the same firm told me that they could and would. Furthermore she stated that because the account was sold they are not even required to update the reporting as it having been paid. I am very well aware the per the FCRA they are required to update it as paid and that it is not my responsibility to demonstrate to the original creditor that I paid it and that it is the responsibility on the debt buyer to notify the original creditor that it has been paid so they may update reporting. This would not even apply as I had paid it directly to them even though Ms. Knotts has no knowledge of the payment even though they took the $425 from my checking account and the debt buyer is now contacting me even though it has already been paid with the original creditor.
Furthermore I had requested validation of this account per my rights under section 623 of the FCRA by certified mail on May 07. To this date I have not received validation in any manner. They did however at one point send me a letter stating that I was wrong and that they were not required to verify the account and that I did not give them sufficient information to identify the account even though I had included the account number as well as my name and address in the request for validation. This account needs to be completely removed from my credit reports as was promised by the original creditor. Furthermore between the original creditor and the debt buyer they need to figure out which one of them has my mother's $425 and which one of them is suppose to have it because it certainly isn't going to be paid twice.
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