Saturday, October 14, 2006
Creditwrench is proven wrong by a DEBT COLLECTOR
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In a recent discussion with a professional debt collector, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer made the following claim:
"Consumer reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax) search court records for civil money complaints that have not yet been tried, and report these lawsuits against consumer credit reports as Judgments."
I found Creditwrench CEO Billie Bauer's statement above to be false and misleading, as did others.
I requested the professional debt collector respond to CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer's claim. Though I am a consumer advocate, facts are still facts. And, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer's claim is simply not fact.
Accordingly, I have posted, below, the professional debt collectors response which I find to be accurate and factual.
"This is completely false since such an action would effectively deny the consumer the right to due process of law to have the complaint tried in court and determine if there is any liability by the consumer to pay the debt at all. Additionally, the false reporting of a debt as a Judgment on a person’s credit bureau report when in fact the matter has not yet been before a judge, is a clear violation of the FCRA and FACTA (a law that Billie Bauer states he was not aware of and further claims has no application to his illegal credit repair scam).
Billie Bauer’s statement that a yet-to-be-tried lawsuit automatically results in a Judgment against a person’s credit report is false and misleading.
Billie Bauer further stated that the CRA’s will report “pending lawsuits” against a person’s credit report. This is also a false statement, since it is impossible for the CRA’s to have advance knowledge that a creditor is preparing a pleading on a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit for an unpaid debt. Additionally, even if a creditor had intention of filing a lawsuit against a consumer at some point in the future, there is NO coded provision anywhere within the credit reporting system for a “pending lawsuit” to be reported against a consumer’s credit bureau report. Each type of debt carries its own identifying alpha/numeric code with the CRA’s, and when submitting a debt to the credit bureaus for reporting purposes, data furnishers are required to select from among a limited number of pre-determined alpha/numeric codes in order to properly distinguish the type of debt being submitted for reporting (credit card, retail charge account, mortgage, automobile installment loan, etc), as well as the account’s payment status (current, delinquent, charged off, transferred, etc). The fact is, there is NO alpha/numeric code with any of the CRA’s for a “pending lawsuit”. It simply doesn’t exist, so even if a creditor wanted to report a pending lawsuit to consumer's credit report, the creditor would be unable to do so.
Billie Bauer’s statement that “pending lawsuits” are reported to a consumer’s personal credit bureau report is false and misleading.
Finally, in the very same discussion, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer also claimed that civil money Judgments are picked up by the CRA’s directly from the courts and reported against the Debtor’s personal credit bureau report. This is entirely false and is a very dangerous statement for Billie Bauer to say to a Judgment Creditor. The CRA’s do not comb through thousands of court records looking for Judgments to report against a person’s credit bureau report, and the courts do not pay clerks to sift and sort through thousands of court records to locate and submit civil money Judgments to the CRA’s for reporting purposes. The fact is, if a Judgment Creditor wants his or her civil money Judgment to appear on the Judgment Debtor’s personal credit bureau report, the Judgment Creditor must obtain an Abstract of Judgment from the court that awarded the Judgment, and the Judgment Creditor must file the document with a County Recorder’s office to perfect a Lien against the Judgment Debtor. The County Recorder will then submit the recorded Judgment to the CRA’s for reporting against the consumer’s personal credit bureau report. If a Judgment Creditor were to make the mistake of accepting the advice of Billie Bauer, the Creditor would falsely assume that his or her Judgment is automatically reported to the credit bureaus when it is awarded in court. Years can go by with the Judgment Creditor waiting for the day when the debtor would be forced to pay the Judgment to clear the tradeline from his credit report. In reality, the Judgment would eventually become stale-dated and unpaid since it was NOT in fact ever reported to the credit bureaus by the court. A Judgment Creditor could stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars in uncollected funds by following Billie Bauer’s dangerous and ill-informed "advice".
Billie Bauer’s statement that a civil money Judgment is automatically reported by the Courts against a consumer’s credit report is false and misleading.
In a recent discussion with a professional debt collector, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer made the following claim:
"Consumer reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax) search court records for civil money complaints that have not yet been tried, and report these lawsuits against consumer credit reports as Judgments."
I found Creditwrench CEO Billie Bauer's statement above to be false and misleading, as did others.
I requested the professional debt collector respond to CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer's claim. Though I am a consumer advocate, facts are still facts. And, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer's claim is simply not fact.
Accordingly, I have posted, below, the professional debt collectors response which I find to be accurate and factual.
"This is completely false since such an action would effectively deny the consumer the right to due process of law to have the complaint tried in court and determine if there is any liability by the consumer to pay the debt at all. Additionally, the false reporting of a debt as a Judgment on a person’s credit bureau report when in fact the matter has not yet been before a judge, is a clear violation of the FCRA and FACTA (a law that Billie Bauer states he was not aware of and further claims has no application to his illegal credit repair scam).
Billie Bauer’s statement that a yet-to-be-tried lawsuit automatically results in a Judgment against a person’s credit report is false and misleading.
Billie Bauer further stated that the CRA’s will report “pending lawsuits” against a person’s credit report. This is also a false statement, since it is impossible for the CRA’s to have advance knowledge that a creditor is preparing a pleading on a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit for an unpaid debt. Additionally, even if a creditor had intention of filing a lawsuit against a consumer at some point in the future, there is NO coded provision anywhere within the credit reporting system for a “pending lawsuit” to be reported against a consumer’s credit bureau report. Each type of debt carries its own identifying alpha/numeric code with the CRA’s, and when submitting a debt to the credit bureaus for reporting purposes, data furnishers are required to select from among a limited number of pre-determined alpha/numeric codes in order to properly distinguish the type of debt being submitted for reporting (credit card, retail charge account, mortgage, automobile installment loan, etc), as well as the account’s payment status (current, delinquent, charged off, transferred, etc). The fact is, there is NO alpha/numeric code with any of the CRA’s for a “pending lawsuit”. It simply doesn’t exist, so even if a creditor wanted to report a pending lawsuit to consumer's credit report, the creditor would be unable to do so.
Billie Bauer’s statement that “pending lawsuits” are reported to a consumer’s personal credit bureau report is false and misleading.
Finally, in the very same discussion, CREDITWRENCH CEO Billie Bauer also claimed that civil money Judgments are picked up by the CRA’s directly from the courts and reported against the Debtor’s personal credit bureau report. This is entirely false and is a very dangerous statement for Billie Bauer to say to a Judgment Creditor. The CRA’s do not comb through thousands of court records looking for Judgments to report against a person’s credit bureau report, and the courts do not pay clerks to sift and sort through thousands of court records to locate and submit civil money Judgments to the CRA’s for reporting purposes. The fact is, if a Judgment Creditor wants his or her civil money Judgment to appear on the Judgment Debtor’s personal credit bureau report, the Judgment Creditor must obtain an Abstract of Judgment from the court that awarded the Judgment, and the Judgment Creditor must file the document with a County Recorder’s office to perfect a Lien against the Judgment Debtor. The County Recorder will then submit the recorded Judgment to the CRA’s for reporting against the consumer’s personal credit bureau report. If a Judgment Creditor were to make the mistake of accepting the advice of Billie Bauer, the Creditor would falsely assume that his or her Judgment is automatically reported to the credit bureaus when it is awarded in court. Years can go by with the Judgment Creditor waiting for the day when the debtor would be forced to pay the Judgment to clear the tradeline from his credit report. In reality, the Judgment would eventually become stale-dated and unpaid since it was NOT in fact ever reported to the credit bureaus by the court. A Judgment Creditor could stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars in uncollected funds by following Billie Bauer’s dangerous and ill-informed "advice".
Billie Bauer’s statement that a civil money Judgment is automatically reported by the Courts against a consumer’s credit report is false and misleading.
