Credit Report Repair

Can You Repair Your Credit Report If There Are No Factual Errors?

I had a Wal-Mart Credit Card that I charged approx. $90.00.

I never received my first bill and I could not pull it up on the web. Shortly after I moved and had my mail forwarded to my new address and still no bill.

Yesterday I received a collection notice that my account had been charged off and I now owe $269.00.

How can I get my credit report fixed?

Tera

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I don’t know if you’ve paid this bill yet or over how long a period the charges built up.

If you haven’t paid the bill, call Wal-Mart’s credit department and try to work something out. Explain that you moved and things got lost in the shuffle.

If true, tell them this is the first time this ever happened. Tell them you’ll pay the bill today, if they charge only interest and waive late fees, etc. Ask them to notify the credit bureaus of the mix-up and hope for the best.

Your second best option is writing the collection agency and asking for an itemized bill. You also might be able to work the same deal with them, although I think Wal-Mart itself will be easier to deal with.

Have you checked your credit report to see if this has been reported? Is your report otherwise clean?

Read Your Credit Report to find out how to get a free report from each of the credit bureaus.

The problem is that credit bureaus are only required to remove incorrect entries on your credit record. Wal-Mart’s entry is not incorrect. Your only choice is to write to the credit bureaus and ask that an explanation be attached to your file. Since there is really nothing in dispute here, I don’t think they will be required to do so.

If you have an otherwise clean credit report and don’t let something like this happen again, this shouldn’t affect your overall score too much and it will quickly become old news. If you have done this often, unfortunately you will pay the price.

If you know you owe a corporate creditor money, but the bill isn’t showing up, it would be simple to go to the nearest store (or bank branch, if applicable) give them the money and ask them to apply it to your account. Get a receipt. That should be the end of the story.

Don’t hide your head in the sand and hope it goes away. As you have experienced, this type of thing can come back and bite you hard.

Call Wal-Mart today and work something out. I’m sure that they will be amenable.

Good luck.

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