Credit Card Issuer Sends Me a Check

As a member of the Bankruptcy Law Network, I have joined a community of dedicated, thoughtful and skilled lawyers from all over the country. In addition to our network blogs (this one - the Debt Law Network, the original Bankruptcy Law network, and the Mortgage Law network) we lawyers interact daily on a private Google Group. Topics in our discussions range from where members will be staying at various conventions to substantive questions about matters of law.

Several of the members of the network are skilled litigators in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act cases. I have dipped my toe into these waters but I have not yet filed an actual FDCPA or FCRA lawsuit (although I have worked on a few cases with a couple of local colleagues). In any case, I have learned a great deal of practical information about these areas from the Google Group discussions.

A couple of weeks ago, a Chapter 7 client who had filed with me several years ago came to see me with a credit report problem. It seemed that one of his credit card lenders was reporting a large past due balance - although the debt itself had been discharged in the Chapter 7. On the advice of my colleagues I wrote a demand letter to the lender and, lo and behold, I started getting daily phone calls from the credit card company assuring me that the improper reporting had been cleared up and offering me a confirmation letter to be used in any mortgage application.

My demand letter also included a request for money damages and, while I did not get the full amount of my demand, I did get a check in the mail for my and my client’s trouble.

Now my approach was clearly not very sophisticated, but this experience shows me that credit card lenders take FCRA issues seriously and they will move very quickly to resolve these problems. So, if you filed bankruptcy and you are finding that your credit report shows as outstanding debts that were discharged, don’t ignore the problem. Call your bankruptcy lawyer, or call one of the very capable lawyers in the Debt Law Network for help.