ChexSystems has been a thorn in my side for a while – I recently sent them a letter disputing information that had on my account, and they originally deleted it, but then a week later put it back in saying that a debt was validated – thing is they “verified” the debt through a membership application to the credit union – how does a membership application validate a debt?  Am I missing something?  Anyway, here is the letter I sent ChexSystems:

This letter is in response to your investigation with Credit Union in regards to the derogatory information you are reporting on the consumer file you maintain under the above consumer ID.

Your investigation verified that I have an unpaid debt with Credit Union, when my records indicate that I do not owe Credit Union any money.  The documents you produced to serve as evidence of unpaid monies owed to Credit Union was a copy of a membership application.  This does not serve as viable evidence of any amounts owed to Credit Union.

Be aware that I am making a final goodwill attempt to have you clear up this matter. The listed item is entirely inaccurate and incomplete, and represents a very serious error in your reporting.

Failure to comply with federal regulations by credit reporting agencies are investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (see 15 USC 41, et seq.). I am maintaining a careful record of my communications with you for the purpose of filing a complaint with the FTC and the Attorney General’s office, should you continue in your non-compliance. I further remind you that, as in Wenger v. Trans Union Corp., No. 95-6445 (C.D.Cal. Nov. 14, 1995), you may be liable for your willful non-compliance.  An incomplete investigation with continued reporting errors in my consumer file will result in my legal action for your violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act

They actually did not respond back, not even with that letter that says they have my letter and are looking into it. However, I also sent the following letter to the credit union:

This letter is regarding account #000, 000 and 000, all of which have been reported to ChexSystems. This is a formal notice that the ChexSystems claims and amounts reportedly owed are disputed. This is my second letter to you in attempt to retrieve this information.

I have requested validation of the claims you have made to ChexSystems for all three accounts, including associated documents bearing my signature detailing my contractual obligations with you, as I am entitled by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to receive within 30 days. In addition, please send me the following:

· What the money you say I owe is for;
· Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe;

This letter is an attempt to correct your records, and any information received from you will be used for that purpose should any further action be necessary. This is a request for information only, and is not a statement, election, or waiver of status.

My contact information is as follows:

So the Credit Union responded back and in that letter, they referenced my letter to ChexSystems, so I guess ChexSystems got my letter and is acting on it – they just didn’t communicate that to me.

Anyway, the credit union responded back to me and they sent me a copy of a bank statement that had over $1500 of bank fees because Paypal had a few charges that were all under $10 (some under $1) that they kept submitting over and over and over again. They also sent me a copy of my membership application again which said I agreed to pay all those bank fees. Their letter closed by saying they will accept money orders and cashiers checks for payment. Oh, and also, they said that they sent me this information before (the bank statements) as well as to ChexSystems and that this was their third time responding – they did not send me bank statements, they sent me membership applications. Anyway, they have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act on many levels, so I sent them the following letter:

Thank you for your response to my letter. I received your response dated January 15, 2010. The information that you provided twice in 2008 was not the same information that you provided to me today. In 2008, I disputed the fact that I owed Credit Union any money, and you sent copies of my membership form to validate the debt that you were reporting. Obviously a membership form does not validate a debt.

However now I am in receipt of the bank statements that show the amounts that you are reporting that I have been disputing for nearly two years. Thank you for finally sending them. In reviewing the statements for account number 000, I see that the same electronic debits were submitted to my account over and over again and each time that debit hit my account, you charged me $25. It is the bank fees that caused me to go into debt with your bank where in the month of October 2008 alone, you charged me $1125 in fees. In November, right before you automatically closed the account, you charged me $350 in bank fees totaling $1475 in fees alone.

After taking funds out of my other bank accounts, you are reporting that I owe you $1296.68. Considering the substantial delay in responding to my validation request, as well as your general failure to comply to FCRA guidelines in reporting and responding to my validation requests, I am interested in seeing if you would be willing to work out a settlement for this debt. Please advise at your earliest convenience if this is an option. I would be willing to agree not to file any claims in regards to FCRA violations within our settlement agreement in exchange for you removing all 3 listings from my ChexSystems consumer reporting file.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response. My contact information is as follows:

Now I do not expect a favorable response – I really think that the woman who sent me the letter will laugh at me. Whatever. I am prepared to pursue their violations by filing suit in excess of what they owe me, so we will see what happens …

I’ll keep posted on what happens …

From what I have learned through all my reading on successful credit repair is that your best defense is a good paper trail.  If you live in a one-party state, set up your phone to start recording phone conversations with your creditors and file the recordings so that they can be accessed easily.

In addition, organize all your paperwork – you need to save copies of EVERYTHING – from copies of bills, letters you send, letters you receive, postage receipts, and receipts from certified and registered mail.  Following is how I organize my paperwork, and it seems to work really well in keeping things easy to track, easy to retrieve and easy to reference.

First of all, I would recommend getting the following – many of these can be retrieved from eBay for very cheap or Craigslist for free – or you may have these items laying around the house, or if you work in an office, your boss may let you take a few things as a personal favor – TRY NOT TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY – the other part of credit repair is credit management!

• A file box that can hold hanging file folders
• Hanging file folders in 3 different colors (though one of the colors you will only need 3-5 folders)
• 5160 Avery Mailing Labels – I got a box of 100 sheets
• 5167 Avery Return Labels – I got a pack of 10 sheets on eBay
• 2 pocket folders (or just file folders will be fine too)
• Roll of transparent tape
• Stack of certified and registered mail receipts from the post office (so your mail is ready to go!)

As you can see from my picture, I have burgundy hanging folders in the front – this is for the credit reporting agencies, the green folders are for original creditors and the red folders are for collection agencies.  In each folder, I have copies of bills and letters in order chronologically with the oldest in the back and newest in the front.   Also, for the companies I have a lot of mail going back and forth to, I print a whole sheet of labels in Word and put that at the back of the file so I do not have to keep printing mailing labels for each letter – you use three labels for every certified letter, so it is handy to have them pre-printed.

Also, I organize my letters as follows:

Notice that the certified and return registered mail receipt are stapled to the letter.  In addition, I staple a copy of the postage receipt to the back of the letter.

When I send mail out, I get copies of my receipt – as many as I had letters that went out – that way, when I need to add up my postage costs for any particular debt, the receipts are all there and easily accessible – once you have the system set up, it is very easy to maintain.

In the picture above,  you may notice the green and black file folders in the front of the box.  The green folder contains letters that just came in the mail that I have to file or receipts from the post office that also need to be filed.  I also stick my most recent True Credit 3 in 1 printout in that folder which I routinely reference and make notes on as to what I want to do next.  The black folder has my return labels pre-printed with my return address, copies of my ID ready to send out if need be and papers I pulled out of the file that I need to make photocopies of for whatever reason.  In the back of the box, I store the tape (which I have to use over my labels because I got the super cheap ones and they peel really easily) and my stack of unused post office certified and registered mail forms.

It took me a while to get to this point, and even to figure out the best way to get organized, but I tell you, this system sure beats huge piles of mail in 5 different boxes randomly in different parts of the house.  People who are in debt get more mail than those that are not in debt – we need some kind of system to organize all the mail!