old credit card (not opened by me) coming back to haunt credit record

[jakedoggie]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? California

In 2000, my parents gave me some mail which had arrived at their house for me (I had moved out a year before.) It was a credit card statement from "Associates Bank" in my name. My parents lived at, say "1234 Main Street" and the card was in my name, at the address "1284 Main Street". The statement had overdue & late fee charges for an $18 charge made 4 months before, by then totalled over $200. Apparantly someone opened a credit card in my name and charged a magazine subsccription to "Car Stereo Magazine". (something I have NO INTEREST in). The magazine company would not tell me where the magazine was going . The credit card company would not believe me that I didn't open this card and buy the subscription myself because "no one commiting fraud would do so for such a low amount".

They said that I could not dispute the charge because more than 60 days had gone by. I replied that I had never opened the account in the first place, and had I opened the account, I would have supplied MY address, not an address similar to my parents but not accurate as to street number. Anyway, they refused to believe me, sent the matter to a collections agency, and I had to get an attorney involved, to call them and send threatening letters. FINALLY, in 2001, the matter was supposedly resolved by my attorney. He got them to agree to remove any mention of the card from my credit reports. They mailed him a letter telling him that if I ever had any problems with the matter again, to simply show creditors the letter from Associates Bank stating that account #XXXX
should be removed from my credit history.

I should mention that I have never been late with nor missed a credit card payment in my life. Last year I obtained a home mortgage with a credit score in the high 700s. Then last month, I applied for a Citibank Visa. The other day I received a rejection letter in the mail, with no phone # to contact them, stating that my application had been turned down because of a "history of late payment on a previous Citibank or AT & T card". I have not ever had a Citibank nor AT & T card. Could this be the Associates Bank card? Unfortunately, i do not have the fax copy of the letter anymore, verifying that the account should be removed from my credit report. I thought that my lawyer would retain it in his files but he is no longer practicing. What should I do? I have legal insurance so I could retain a lawyer for the purpose of fighting this. I want to get this thing off of my record once and for all and not be haunted by it forever!

[dc417]

#1. file a police report and take all with you documents involving this matter
#2. File a complaint with the Ferderal trade Commission.
#3. Under the new FACT ACT, dispute this original creditor, the bank that issued the alleged card.
#4. File a fraud complaint with all 3(4-Innovis if it's being reported to them also) credit bureaus. send copy of police report, dispute with bank and FTC complaint. send certified mail to all credit bureaus.
# 5. The bank that issued the fax letter should be able to provide you a copy. This copy should be given to officer making report. also, send a copy of this letter to credit bureaus.
#6. No need to hire an attorney, you can do this yourself save your money, be patient. with a little time, this issued should be cleared in 30 days or less. Then reapply for that credit card and contact the cs dept directly.