As many of you are aware, Citibank and Capital One frequently do not report the credit limits that a person has, only the "high credit used."

For example, if you receive a credit card through Capital One with a $1,000.00 limit and you charge it up to $500.00 and make a $50.00 payment your report is likely to show that you have:

High Credit: $500
Currently Owed: $450

Which will make it look as though you are at 90% utilization on this card when, in fact, you are at 45% utilization. There's a big difference between the two.

Fortunately the Fair Credit Reporting Act protects you because it reads, as follows:

15 USC §1681i "...In general. If, after any reinvestigation under paragraph (1) of any information disputed by a consumer, an item of the information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or cannot be verified, the consumer reporting agency shall promptly delete that item of information from the consumer's file or modify that item of information, as appropriate, based on the results of the reinvestigation."

You should begin by disputing the item. Include a copy of your recent statement from the company highlighting the credit limit and tell the Credit Reporting Agency, in no uncertain terms, that the law permits then two (2) and ONLY two (2) options:

Correction; or
Deletion.

If they correct the item then HOORAY you have the correct info. Case closed and moved on. If they DON'T I'll bet ya they won't delete the item either. They'll figure that on the next reporting cycle that the credit grantor will just re-report it and it'll show back up on your credit profile.

This gives rise to a good case for litigation, but dot your t's and cross your i's and have it all in black and white and explained in language that a two-year old can easily understand.

I totally agree. The only problem is showing damages.

Well, and that:

"explained in language that a two-year old can easily understand"

Unfortunately you are right, and I have found that most judges and attorneys would NOT understand your posting. Most Americans lack the ability to calculate their own B/L ratio.

Also, I think it'll be a lot more effective suing the creditor, the bureaus and Fair Isaac.

If you only sue a bureau or a creditor, they will put the blame on someone else. And that's ok, as long as you sue everybody involved.

Too add on to this topic, case law also establishes that even though a reporting may be technically accurate and complete- it may still violate the FCRA by being misleading which this clearly is.

Unfortunately, I can't find a link to this entire case, only ref's in other cases but this is the verbiage from it:
Pinner v. Schmidt, 805 F.2d 1258, 1262 (5th Cir. 1986) (Section 1681e(b) "imposes a duty of reasonable care in the preparation of a consumer report."). A credit entry may be "inaccurate" within the meaning of the statute either because it is patently incorrect, or because it is misleading in such a way and to such an extent that it can be expected to adversely affect credit decisions

In response to my relentless disputes, TU DELETED my 2 Cap One accounts, Experian did nothing, and Equifax fixed it in January.

However, noticed today that with the monthly update one card reverted back to the "high credit", and the other was NOT updated at all, leaving a now paid 4K+ balance.

I just disputed the balance.

It feels GREAT to know that I already sued them all. Makes me want to serve them!

christine-- the "suing fair isaac in real court" link brings up an error mesaage-- just though i'd let you know.
thanks--*

Thanks, Doug!

Yeah, that was the OLD link, I took that out. Here the current location:

My law suit