A few weeks ago when I was in DC I received an email from Equifax.com that said this:

Dear Margie,

This e-mail is to notify you that the following change has occurred on your credit file:

  • a collections account was added

I’m sorry, what? Did you say a collections account? Like the kind where I owe someone money and have not paid my bill and so my credit score will drop by 100 points? YES! That kind.

THANK YOU, EQUIFAX. Without your credit monitoring service I pay $8.95 a month for I wouldn’t have had one inkling that my suburb, twelve-year credit history had been assaulted by the customer service champs over at DirecPath (Direct TV installers) – a mistake that took my credit score from the top 3% of the US population to a just-barely-able-to-get-a-car-percentage.

So, I call DirecPath and say “Hi there, I was not even your customer when this alleged non-payment occurred so FIX IT.” Here’s the best part: Turns out that not only do I NOT owe them money, BUT THEY OWE ME $124.

I’ll give you a sec to process this.

I KNOW!

Anyway, after weeks of calling them and crying and stuff their answer was always “not sure how we can help, this is our mistake, but we don’t show you owe any money so, um, yeah.” Then they promise some supervisor will call me. I’m still waiting on that call …

Thankfully, you can dispute any information you believe to be fraudulent or just plain wrong from the Equifax website. I did that about seven days ago. Today I received an email from Equifax saying they had investigated my claim and have found I am not a collections case (I KNOW!) and will strike that negative mark from my credit record.

Still waiting on that DirecPath call…

Folks, sign up for some sort of credit score monitoring. If you don’t look out for your credit score no one else will. It’s 9 bucks a month that could keep you from being denied a car or home loan. DO IT. Do it now.

You can’t afford to have someone’s human error ruin your credit.

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