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Background

Ricfer Sanras got a bill in the mail from CompanyX and refused to pay it because she never signed a contract for the services the CompanyX claimed to render.

CompanyX sold the alleged debt to a CollectionAgencyCinema, and CollectionAgencyCinema pursued the matter against Ricfer, eventually suing Ricfer in small claims court.

Ricfer responded to the lawsuit and put forward her case, eventually prevailing. The judge ruled that CompanyX never had a valid contract, and thus the defendant was not liable.

Problem

CollectionAgencyCinema filed the 'debt' with a credit reporting bureau and Ricfer did not find out about it until checking her credit score online.

Her credit score was originally ranked "excellent" (low 800s) and now it is in the mid 600s.

Ricfer believes this negative mark on her credit score is directly related to the filing by CollectionAgencyCinema.

Questions

  • Can Ricfer compell CollectionAgencyCinema to report back to the credit bureau that the debt was never valid and therefore should be striken?
  • Can negative credit accounts be permanently "expunged" as though they never existed?
  • What remedy or damages can Ricfer seek against CollectionAgencyCinema if they do not comply with her written request to have CollectionAgencyCinema report about the invalid negative entry?
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A credit score is based solely on the information in the credit report. The correct course of action is to look at the credit report and check for inaccurate information. If a debt is on there that shouldn't be, you can challenge that directly with the credit bureaus. Sending them a copy of the judgements would allow them to quickly remove this from the credit report, and the credit score should bounce right back up.

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    The key here is that you contact the credit bureaus instead of the collection agency. Even though the collection agency can undo the report, they have no incentive to fix it, even when they know it's wrong. The bureaus do have an incentive to fix it because their entire business is based on accurate reporting. This answer is right on. But I would still like to know the answer to OPs questions, especially the last one.
    – TTT
    Dec 23, 2015 at 21:51
  • @TTT If you deal with the credit bureaus directly, the answers to the first and last questions don't matter. The answer to the second question is yes, and the credit bureaus can do it.
    – Ben Miller
    Dec 30, 2015 at 16:17
  • That makes sense, but I think a lot of people have a desire to "stick it to the collection agencies" to give them more incentive to fix their mistakes in the future, thus the reason for wishing to know whether it's possible.
    – TTT
    Dec 30, 2015 at 16:22

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