Almost everyone knows the importance of having a good and solid credit history in regards to everything from qualifying for the best loan rates to searching for a new job. Yet despite your best efforts of prompt payment and open communication, companies can make mistakes within their system that negatively impact your credit score.
Take the case of Kristin and her husband as reported by the Consumerist. The couple worked diligently to ensure that their car payments to Nissan Finance were always on time and never missed a payment. However, Kristin "got notified by my credit monitoring company that Nissan was reporting me 30 days past due on my credit report," and was less than pleasedwith that information.
After checking her records thoroughly she could not detect any missed payment or even late payment and all the payments were marked as "paid" in the records she accessed. After calling Nissan Finance to try to figure out the situation, she requested to be passed on to a supervisor who said that Nissan had reversed her payments but offered no further explanation or resolution to her problem accept for taking her money once again and stating that they would contact the credit agencies on her behalf to let them know that everything is okay. At this point she has yet to receive written confirmation that the action was taken.
Like any wise consumer would do, instead of banging her head against the wall she wrote a letter stating her situation to the Consumerist. Hopefully the attention she garners can help resolve her situation and ensure that the appropriate steps are taken to clean up any damage that was erroneously made to her credit report.
If you are a consumer who is in a similar situation, there are a couple of tactics you can attempt to protect yourself. All three credit bureaus will allow you to make your case arguing against false negative marks on your report. Kristin should certainly take the time to contact the big three credit bureaus and enter her information.
Additionally, if even during your situation you are pleasant but the representative assisting you loses their cool, using social media can work to your advantage. Many companies are actively checking social media sites such as Twitter to ensure that their reputations stay intact. If you "tweet" your complaint publicly (and without profanity), a representative from the organization in question may jump in to make things right.
