TU fax - February 20, 2002

February 20, 2002

Ms. Christine Baker
(address deleted)

Re: Christine Baker v. Trans Union, LLC; Cause No.: 801 2001 CV 1751 UN; In the Justice Court of Mohave County, Kingman, AZ

Dear Ms. Baker:

I write to answer your February 18th fax.

Questions:

How long will the collection account for Professional Recovery remain on your credit report?

Under the FCRA, adverse information remains on file for seven years from the date of last activity.  The collection account was placed in April of 1999 so the account will be removed no later than seven years from this date.


Addresses

The addresses that Trans Union lists on your credit report are addresses that your creditors are reporting.  Several of your creditors are reporting the San Bruno address as your current address.  When this happens, you Cottonwood address gets moved to a previous address.  This is not uncommon and does not affect the credit information on file.  The (deleted) address is being listed on your credit report because this is listed on your complaint against Trans Union.  I am having Trans Union delete the (deleted)  address, you need to contact all of the creditors who are reporting information on your Trans Union credit report and inform them of your current address.


Inquiries on Consumerinfo.com

As I have previously explained to you, there is no hidden information that Fair Isaac or creditors get from Trans Union.  The credit report that you have from Trans Union regarding your inquiries is what creditors see regarding your inquiries.  I presume that Consumerinfo.com includes the industry description as part of its services.

Additionally, unlike when you access your credit report directly through Trans Union, when a service such as Consumerinfo.com accesses your credit report, that does show as an inquiry and will appear on your credit report for creditors and Fair Isaac to see.

Moreover, the Consumerinfo.com report that you provided Trans Union did not have your social security number which is why more information was requested from you.

Your Damages

You stated that to settle this case that you wanted your complete Trans Union credit report and all the information that creditors received.  You also request that you be reimbursed for your damages. I have provided you with your credit report and as stated earlier, Trans Union is willing to settle your case for $250. Trans Union believes this is a generous offer.

Your latest letter states that you have been damaged in the amount of $4,000 based on Capital One extending you a $1,000 credit limit rather than a $5,000 limit. If you do not accept Trans Union's settlement offer and we proceed with this case, you will have to prove that Trans Union caused you to suffer $4,000 in actual damages by being denied a higher credit limit by Capital One.  Under the law, receiving a lower credit card limit is simply not a "damage" as you have suggested.  Because a bankruptcy appears on your credit report, you will have a difficult time proving any damages.

Additionally, you state that Trans Union had numerous inaccurate accounts on your file.  This is simply not true.  On August 15, 2001, you sent to Trans Union your Consumerinfo.com report and stated the following:

AFSCI #20452295-026XXXX - included in bankruptcy
Bureau of Commercial #272XXX - not yours
Fleet #40712967XXXX - included in bankruptcy
Sear #5653453XXXX - not unrated; good account
Washington Mutual #856001115XXX - not unrated; good account.

As for the "unrated' listing of your Sears and Washington Mutual accounts, unrated means simply that the creditor who reported this information to Trans Union listed the account as "unrated." This is a neutral comment. As you can see, if you look at the next columns, Trans Union lists you as having paid your accounts timely.

As for the other accounts, the AFSCI account is listed on Trans Union's report as transferred with a zero balance.  This is true as this account was transferred. Regardless of whether the account is listed as "transferred" or listed as being "included in bankruptcy," either way, the account would reflect a zero balance and that is was "charged off as bad debt."

With regard to the Bureau of Commercial account, that account is the same as the Professional Recovery collection account. One of the other bureaus must have reported the name as Bureau of Commercial to Consumerinfo.com and Consumerinfo.com matched up the account numbers to create the tri-merged report. Additionally, Fleet had removed your Fleet Account from your Trans Union credit report.

Thus, as you can see, all of the information Trans Union maintained on your credit report was accurate. I think your confusion stems from having the Consumerinfo.com report, which has a different format, rather than having a Trans Union credit report.

It is my understanding that you primarily seek damages for the Generations Bank denial and the credit limit offered by Capital One. The Generations Bank denial letter stated that it was unable to approve your credit card application because of "delinquent past or present credit obligations." Capital One extended you credit in the amount of $1,000.

Based on these claims, it will be extremely difficult for you to show that Trans Union in any way caused you any damages. First, Trans Union on August 21 requested that you provide identifying information so it could process your disputes and you refused to provide that information. Second, on September 6, 2001, Generations Bank and Capital One pulled your credit report. This was less than 30 days after your letter of August 15, 2001. Thus, even if you had sent in your identifying information as Trans Union requested on August 21, 2001, the reinvestigation of your disputes still would not have been completed. Third, your credit report reflects a bankruptcy and numerous other adverse accounts which presumably were the factors in the creditors' decisions either to not extend credit to you or only do so with a lower credit line. If you look at your September 21, 2001 credit report, which you requested a copy of, the Trans Union credit report shows you with 11 adverse accounts including a bankruptcy. Fourth, all the information that Trans Union was showing on your credit report was correct.

As you can see, Ms. Baker, Trans Union has not caused you any damages. I hope that you accept Trans Union's settlement offer of $250. This offer will expire February 28, 2002. If this offer is not accepted, I will be filing a motion with the Court to dismiss your lawsuit. I will also ask the Court to award Trans Union's attorneys' fees which are mounting daily and are in the thousands of dollars.

Please also be advised that JC Penney continues to report your information as Christian Baker. You should contact them directly and notify them of the proper spelling of your name so as to avoid having duplicate files. Their contact information is:

JC Penney
P.O. Box 981131
El Paso, TX 79998-1131
1-800-527-4403

I also enclose the latest copy of your Trans Union credit report dated February 20, 2002. As you can see, the bankruptcy remains on your file as does the Professional Recovery account, the Capital One account, and the PRDN BNCRP account. Some of your creditors have deleted their account information from your credit report.  Additionally, after I requested that Trans Union dispute all of the adverse accounts on your credit report, several of your creditors did not respond to the requisite 30 days and those accounts were removed from your report as you can see.

Very truly yours,

Amanda Lewis

ASL:jkf