At present I am a Canadian Citizen living in the US as a permanent resident with my spouse. When I moved to the US ( 3 yrs ago) I had all my bills etc transferred to my new name and address. Last year I used my Sears credit card in Ontario ( which I don't usually do). I forgot all about it and never noticed I never got a bill. That call came last week from a collection agency ( Total Credit Recovery) who informed me of the situation. I asked them to send the bill and received it today. Went online and paid in full ( $159) from my Canadian bank account. My question is, if and when I come back to Ontario to live will my credit be destroyed because of this?? I was working at a good job, had good credit but retired and came to the US. If we go back it will be as a retired couple but concerned about my credit. They did say I had 72 hrs after receiving the bill to pay or they would contact Sears and take further action ( not sure what that would have been). They now have my new name and US address so this will not happen again but Sears told me I would not be able to use my Sears card for 6 months and then have to reapply and that part concerned me. Please advise.ThanksTrudy
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Canada
First, you should specifically request the collection agency to remove any notation from your credit report.The report is based upon your social security number, so a name change would not affect that.The truth of the matter is that, worst case, it will show as one collection account on your credit report which really will not damage your credit in any significant way.As to Sears' behavior, I would explain the situation to them too and request that they act to remove any notation from your credit report and not impact your ability to use the card. However, even if they do terminate your account, you can always use your Visa or Mastercard at Sears, so there is not even a need to reapply for a new Sears card.Good luck to you. I wish you all the best.
Experience: Experienced business lawyer.
Thanks for the info.Yes, Sears told me on the phone that my card would be terminated but I agree, I don't need one to shop.I will try and call the collection agency tomorrow to request removal of any notation from my credit report. This I did not think of.Again, thanks.
In addition to calling the collection agency (expect them to be nasty, they usually are, so don't take it personally), you can also file a "dispute" online with each of the credit reporting agencies. If you make the case that you were unaware of the debt, that there was foreign Relocation involved, and that as soon as you were notified of the delinquency, you paid it off, you have a better chance of having any notation removed from the credit report.
The credit bureaus will conduct an investigation and if they determine that the information on your report is erroneous, they are under legal obligation to remove it. These are your rights provided by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. The links to open the credit bureau disputes are as follows:
Experian:
https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=DISPUTE&channel=8342
TransUnion:
http://www.transunion.com/personal-credit/credit-disputes/credit-disputes.page
Equifax: