I ordered a book search from a company called Booklook. You tell them the book and they supposedly do a computerized search each day (adding charges by the week) til they find it or you cancel the search. I get a statement some months later and instead of searching for my title, ‘On Lisp’, they searched for ‘On List’. I cancel the search and refuse to pay the bill (by now around $40). They claim its my responsibility because they allegedly sent a notice which I was supposed to return if there were any errors. I never got it.
Fast forward a few months, they have turned it over to a collection agency. I notified them within 30 days that I disputed the charge and explained the situation. Booklook holds itself out to be a professional book search agent yet never bothered to check if the title exists and refuses to take any responsibility for the error.
Booklook is hostile and I assume I cannot resolve the dispute amicably. They also have a shady history of unauthorized searches and questionable billing practices with the BBB. I may ask the BBB for help (dispute resolution).
My question is not whether I am legally in debt to booklook (I dont know the answer or who gets to adjudicate it) but, since I am disputing it, what are my protections? Is the collection agent (or booklook) free to send in a negative report to credit agencies, are they required to inform me first, etc.
The amount is not a lot, but I feel I am being extorted. OTOH, its not worth having to pay an extra point on a mortgage one day in the future because of a bad mark on my credit. It just galls me that they could make up any charge against me and I’d have to pay it to avoid credit damage.
Hey, Milo, I’m the resident credit reporting guy from TransUnion.
We will drop any collection charge less than 50 bucks from your credit report and most scoring models don’t look at collection accounts of 50 bucks or less.
You should dispute the item anyway (might not even be on all three big bureau reports).
Do the right thing and pursue it through the company that screwed up the order, and visit the national credit reporting companies (NCRAs)
Again, even if XYZ mortgae company or ABC Credit pull your file, no human ever sees it - it just gets scored and credit decisions are made based on the score.
The item you mention is less than 50 bucks, so it won’t impact your score.
Philster, when did credit agencies start reporting a score instead of listing what other companies have said about you? I learned about it when my wife and I went to get a mortgage on a house we were buying about six months ago.
Also, my wife and I have been married for over 18 years now, and all of our credit history should be tied together. But my score was 792, and hers was well over 800. What’s up with that? It wasn’t a problem (with those scores, the lender pointed us to the vault and told us to take whatever we needed), but why would hers be significantly higher than mine?
And milo, I agree that you need to fight it. Be sure to do it in writing.
CurtC, sorry, I posted a 3 paragraph answer hours ago, but realized it timed out w/out posting. Argh.
Abbrev version: All credit file are separate (spouses too) - slight diffs make the score diff.
credit apps: the credit report is provided in full and scored and the computer sees the score…most humans never review it “subjectively”, even for mortgages - but humans might look should the score be “close” or if the customer needs to dispute something to qualify for the loan, the better rate, the no-money- down offer, the job, the insurance, the background check, etc, etc.
80-90% of apps are based on score and comps do the grant decline thingy. Get instant credit on-line - it’s all about the score.