Credit Tips: Issues with Sherman Acquisitions and Citibank Debt Management Programs

Posted On: December 1, 2004

Author: lax
Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:32 pm
Post subject: Sherman Acquisitions & Citibank problem

from my posting at creditmania.com

My husband and I entered a DMP through CCCS in 98, we had 3 accounts owned by citibank. After getting a 3-in-one merged In July 2002 I sent disputes to all 3 CRA’s because citibank listed all 3 accounts in collections status, charged off for the entire blance, and showing no past dues for the previous 3 years of payment. After the dispute where I stated that the charge off and collections was not correct, due the the DMP and that that accounts were being paid as agreed we recevied back copies from the CRA’s with updated information - citibank corrected the collections status & charge off info. Later that month, with less than 3 payments to go on each account, citibank somehow sold the accounts to Sherman Acquisitions. The letters we received from Sherman acknowledged the DMP through citibank and that we now needed to make payments to them. We informed CCCS and they immediately processed payments to Sherman, citibank however failed to update Sherman with the electronic payments made before the purchase. The accounts were all paid in full over a year ago. CCCS also made 1 additional erroneous $40 payment to Sherman on one account which we have not been able to recover after repeated calls to Sherman from myself and CCCS. CCCS by the way has not helped in the least regarding this matter other than having made their electronic payments! We completed the DMP last April and just had another 3-in-one pulled for a mortgage last month. We found from this CR, that back in July of 2002 immediately after our 1st round of disputes, and the corrected CR, citibank relisted all 3 accounts as collections and charged off with the remaining balances. Sherman also listed all 3 accounts as collection accounts (again after making payments to citibank as agreed for 3 years you would think we would have been INFORMED they were in collections??! I have all of the statements from citibank and Sherman.) I sent in letter of dispute to the CRA’s stating clearly why we disputed the information. That citibank was under a DMP, all payments were made, that it wasn’t in collections or charged off, and that the balances have not been updated since July 2002 - and that they are paid in full. Just this week we recieved back CR copies from Experian and Equifax and both citibank and Sherman have “verified” the information and to add some spite Sherman as now added the full balances back and 120 late notations. I am sick and tired of fighting these sick and evil people. I am certain there is a special circle in Dante’s ***** for them, but for now I would really like some results. I talked to a law office (they charge $180 per hour) they suggested I send more letters to the companies and sending in more proof BEFORE paying $180 per hour for their office to do the same. What I would like is citibank to fix their info, make Sherman take off the collections notation and put the right info back - I want my $40 back from Sherman. Some punative damages would be nice, but for now how do I make them fix it? What can I write that will get them to respond? What kind of legal action do I threaten them with that will let them know I mean business?

Thanks! (I posted this seperate of the other Sherman thread because it is kind of different)

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Author: Ira
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 711
Location: NJ
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 8:56 pm

CCCS? DMP? Explain please.

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Author: lax
Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:08 pm

CCCS is Consumer Credit Counsing Services (non-profit debt management company) They charge a sliding scale based on your debts to manage the accounts ($18 a month for ours) and the DMP is a Debt Management Program.

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Author: 49RoadmasterTX
Guest
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:24 pm
Post subject: try this

Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681), the debt from Sherman Acquisitions and Citibank needs to be immediately removed from my credit report because it is now beyond the 7 year period. 15 U.S.C. § 1681(c)(a)(5). Nor do I fall under any of the exemptions under 15 U.S.C. § 1681(c)(b). The debt did not involve, nor would be reasonably expected to involve, a principal of $150,000 or more. Nor was it related to life insurance of $150,000 or more. Nor is my salary $75,000. The original debt involved a Citibank Credit card that was outstanding since at least 1998 and has since been paid in full. Citibank and Sherman Acquisitions both need to be removed from the record pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Apparently Sherman Acquisitions has attempted to revive this old debt. However, Sherman Acquisitions was not a party to the original contract, though through my naiveness, Sherman Acquisitions was also paid in full. Now I know that since Sherman Acquisitions had loaned nothing of value and I had borrowed nothing of value from them, they shouldn’t have recieved payment from me. Thank you for your time. I expect to see this false entry on my credit report corrected as soon as possible. Try that and see if it works.

Good luck

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NightStarForum ModeratorJoined: 07 Nov 2003Posts: 2101Location: Illinois
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 7:41 am Post subject:

The problem is that at some point before or during the CCCS program terms of agreement changed with Citibank and thus the payments being made was not good enough, so the account charged off. What is needed is to go back and find out when the account went default, and why. If an account is not current then it is going to charge off regardless of partial payments being made. CCCS is not there to re-negotiate or if they miss a payment adjust for it, they will just only pay what they started with. Sometimes CCCS is the cause of the billing problems with the creditor, so you really need to look hard at the billing to understand why this happened. An account for a credit card can charge off 180 days after none payment, but when partial payments are being made it can be longer charging off like 9 months or more, so follow the trail backwards to find out when it went wrong with the creditor.

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