Credit Problems

What is the name of your state? California

I contacted the credit reporting agencies because there were items listed that were not my charges, they had me listed as a joint applicant of numerous credit cards, (which I wasn't). The person that was listed as the primary cardholder must have filed for bankrupcy because their bankrupcy is listed on my credit report. The credit reporting agencies confirmed that supposedly the charges were accurate and told me to contact the credit card company themselves, which I did and they refered me back to the credit reporting agency. I'm trying to buy a home and this is making it almost impossible. Can you please tell me what I can do?

Seems like you are the victim of identity fraud. Validating the debt won't do much of anything since the debt was made and, as far as the bureaus know, that you were a cosigner on the accounts. There are several things you should do immediately if this is the case. A great resource is [url]http://www.idtheftcenter.org/vg17A.shtml[/url] - it lists specifically what to do, and the website has valuable links and other information.

[bigun]

First, go to the police dept and file an iD fraud complaint. Make copies of that and then call the cc companies and get an address to their legal dept. Then, send a letter denying this is your account and enclose the police report. Ask them to send a fraud affavidate and to remove the listing from your credit report.
Contact the CRA's by mail as well and ask for a fraud alert to be placed on your report. Also, enclose the police report and ask them to delete.
Do all of this CRRR. Do not handle this over the phone. You need a paper trail.

The reason the credit bureau told you to contact the credit card agencies is so you could file a report with the fraud departments they will investigate, but if the credit cards were included in the bankruptcy then yes you would have to contact the legal department because customer service or collections can no longer discuss anything about the account once it has been coded for bankruptcy, they shoulded even be able to pull the account up. Filing a report with the police is also good too. Good Luck