Sears, please review account and forgive

With all due respect, the fact that you are in financial straits is
your problem; not Sears'. It's a business and its business is NOT
that of a charity. I sincerely doubt that they will take your request
seriously. I also don't think the fact that you are a "long time
customer" has in any way earned you the special treatment you seek.

I used to work for a cc company.

If it was a long term customer we'd remove a late fee of a month or
maybe two.

But not if they were continuing to purchase during that time and only
if they were a little behind. And we would cut off any new credit
until they were paid off.

Note this was the mid 90s so things may have changed.

It reminds me of my friend who works for one of the cell phone payment
centers. People run up a 4000 bill over 3 months and claim their kid
ran it up.

One month they'll work with you but if you ignore it until the service
is shut off it is a problem.

We have been through the same sort of thing - a few negative thing on
our report (late pmts) . The mortgage co we were working with allwoes
us to present proof that we were always on time and current with our
utilities, and allowed us to oput an explanation letter in our file (
in our case,my hours had been cut and it only took a couple of weeks
to out us behind) as to why those late pmts were there. Becuase it was
nothing huge, we did get the loan. So even if Sears can't help you ,
this might be another route you can take.

If you need more proof, read section 609(c)(2)(E) of the NEW Fair
Credit Reporting Act that President Clinton signed in September of
'96.

"...a consumer reporting agency is not required to remove accurate
derogatory information from a consumer's file, unless the information
is outdated under section 605 or cannot be verified."

Notice the wording above, "is not required to remove." It is very
interesting that the law does not say that accurate information "can
not" be removed, but only that the credit bureau is not required to.
Now, there is law that says a creditor can not knowingly add wrong
information to someone's file, but the subject of removing accurate
information is mysteriously avoided. The truth is the FTC and the
bureaus themselves spend a lot of money trying to convince consumers
otherwise. Why? Lobbyists and money of course! It makes more work for
the credit bureaus, thus increasing their labor costs. Bureaus save
millions of dollars a year by convincing consumers that the consumer
is virtually powerless. But congress worded things to leave the door
open, and in at least one case drafted law allowing for it,
specifically.

wow, debt forgiveness. Like Bono wants for Africa. Wow, i'm calling
MasterCard right now. I want in on this.

I don't hear any preaching.

I don't know what this world is coming to.... can you figure it out
Venice??? I guess people thrive on being confrontational just for the
attention I suppose... just an educated guess on my part.... but if
they ask, I'll give them what they want....

If you're trying to improve your credit, I'd advise ou to call the
company directly .. .not go through this site. You can try to make a
payment arrangement . but they won't remove your late payments.

Shahidah, it is illegal for a credit card company to remove lates from
your credit report if they are accurate. It sucks that you were going
through a hard time, but you're a risk now, especially if you go
through another hard time.