Explanation of Metro2 Five Points of Compliance

I am going to explain, in detail why Metro 2 compliance is far and above any other way for credit enhancement. I am not here to bash or bad mouth any company out there sending in disputes for their clients. There are definitely times in which that may be the best way to go about repairing someone’s credit profile, and I will briefly cover that before I get into the Metro2 compliance checklist. However, I certainly could argue that the results could certainly happen faster using our methods.

Disputing items validity: let us assume for a moment that “Joe Credit” has just one negative item on his credit report. That one item, must, be right for disputing to give it even a small chance for success.

The normal way most credit repair organizations go about disputing items that the validity is questioned, is to pick apart the report and look for a needle in a haystack. They look for things such as:

Balance showing on a charge off
Incorrect balance reporting
Late being reported on an incorrect month
Going from 30 days late to 120 days late
….so on

The object is for them to dispute the reporting because it is not 100% correct or verifiable. This may be correct, and what happens generally is that the item IS NOT deleted, it is simply updated with the correct information. This can go on for months and months hoping that at one time or another it will be deleted.

The other method many use is the attempt to “trick” E-oscar (the super computer used to read through all the disputes sent in on a daily basis) into kicking out the dispute into a real person’s hands for review. The thought process is that people are more apt to delete rather than go through the trouble of verifying the item being disputed.

If you have seen the FTC report that I had quoted and broke down on the front page you landed on, you will remember that the likelihood that a dispute is successful is less than 3%. 96%+ chance of failure.

80% of Reports DO NOT Have Errors

Now, you may have been told by someone, or even heard in the news that 80% of people in the US have errors being reported on their credit report. That just isn’t the fact, here is why: that “poll” was done back in 2003 by ABC in which they randomly called 100 people and asked them if they believed that there could be an error on their credit report.

What? A sample of 100 people, called at random, from a TV station looking for an opinion. None of which the answers could be proven or dis-proven or even had merit to the answers. This was simply done to create a news story, period.

What this report did however, was create a demand for credit repair companies, and the flood of new companies was born. Thousands of new CRO’s started and made a ton of money…many of which never did any work at all on behalf of their clients. This brought on a demand for reform and regulation of the industry, the only good thing that came about from this report by ABC.

The federal government and states created laws to protect the consumer from fraudulent activities by CRO’s. NONE of which were intended to protect the companies themselves. CROA and FCRA plus actions brought into play by the FTC and other agencies put together a great set of laws to protect the consumer. Enough about that as this is not what I am supposed to be explaining.

Bottom line, the CRO’s (Credit Repair Organizations) got a much-deserved bad name for themselves, unfortunately hurting the reputable companies as well.

So again, there is a time and place for a dispute when it is definitely incorrect, not verifiable, not 100% complete, misleading etc. However, I would also argue that, the Metro2 compliance challenges would yield faster and a much better outcome for the client.

The 5 Points of Compliance

I am going to break down the 5 points of compliance for you here, some are pretty self- explanatory, however, others merit a much deeper look. So let us get to it shall we?

e-Oscar is a web-based, Metro2 compliant automated system: this is very important, because Metro2 has been around for quite some time, however it never really had any “teeth” to it until this phrase was added. This phrase simply stated, that the bureaus are going to be Metro2 compliant. Now that it has been said…it must be followed. This was added officially in 2015.
Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA’s) include Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion, their affiliates or Independent Credit Bureaus and Mortgage Reporting Companies: e-Oscar also provides for Data Furnishers (DF’s) to send “out of cycle” credit history updates to CRA’s: What this means is that not only are the major CRA’s held to be Metro2 compliant, but anyone they share information with…anyone. This is a huge deal for not only is the reporting to be Metro2 compliant, but also the companies who send information the the CRA’s are to be compliant as well. Many more steps to prove compliance must be completed…and as you will see, this is going to prove to be IMPOSSIBLE!
Automated Credit Dispute Verification (ACDV) initiated by a CRA on behalf of a consumer are routed to the appropriate DF based on the CRA and subscriber code affiliations indicated by the DF. Simply put, the CRA are required to forward all disputes to the DF who had reported the item to the CRA for verification. This also means that if a third-party reported this information, such as NexisLexis, they then have to forward the dispute to their source, i.e. SageStream. You can begin to see the mass amount of work required to get this done, and if you cannot, let me explain. See the major CRA’s have computers to do such things, others require individuals to complete this task. This creates a large demand for resources, and quite frankly becomes overwhelming for them to complete when a simple deletion request is 100X easier, less expensive and much faster to complete.
The ACDV is returned to the initiating CRA with updated information (if any) relating to the consumer’s credit history: So, what happens is AFTER the DF has found what it has found, they then report it back to the requesting DF or requesting CRA with their findings. More steps for them to go through. If it was a third party DF, they return it to the DF that requested it to then update their files to then turn around and forward the findings to the originating CRA. WOW…here comes the part where it is virtually impossible to be 100% Metro2 compliant. Ready?
If an account is modified or deleted, carbon copies are sent to each CRA with whom the DF has a reporting relationship: This is going to be a long paragraph, or several…I will begin with what I consider the obvious. CARBON COPIES? Are you kidding me? Metro2 Compliance mandates that carbon copies be sent out. Who the heck uses carbon copies of anything anymore? Car dealerships, sometimes I assume, but I cannot think of another place that would utilize carbon copies. OK, so let us say that they do have carbon copies, all they have to do is send them out to the major CRA’s right? NOPE! They are required to send carbon copies to ALL places they have reporting relationships with that they have shared that reporting. This DOES NOT mean just for that one bureau, or for just the main 3 bureaus, but ANY data furnisher they do business with in regards to this client. This fact alone makes it virtually impossible to comply with Metro2 by itself, providing that the DF has carbon copies, even then…how would they construct hundreds of them for each and every individual that disputes or challenges an item on their credit profile? Let us take this a bit further… Let us assume for the moment that they do have hundreds of carbon copies ready to be made… what would it cost them to mail them to each and every place they have a reporting relationship with? They cannot fax a carbon copy, they cannot email a carbon copy, they must send it via snail mail! USPS! Even with a high-volume discount from USPS, this quickly becomes something that drains and strains their resources. It is quite simply a million times easier for them to just admit defeat for the few that know about Metro2 and request to delete the item then to go through this process to prove compliance for Metro2. Now, the last thing I want to say is this, and this is quite possibly the greatest aspect to it all. If the consumer were to sue the DF and or the CRA for non- compliance reporting of items on their credit report, they would win 100% of the time providing the consumer had proof that they challenged, and that the challenge was received. Because in a court of law, how is a DF or a CRA going to prove this to the court system? They cannot! The DF and the CRA’s know this and quite simply are not going to send their high-priced attorney into a courtroom knowing they will lose the case. They simply delete the item when they realize that the individual sending in the challenges knows what they are doing. End of story.

Challenging the Compliance

So, what do we do to challenge the compliance? That is a great question, and I will tell you as much as I can without giving away proprietary information and highly guarded secrets.

Note that there are plenty of avenues we take in a precise order and timing. For you, the client, this next fact is great news! The simple fact that the majority of deletions come from the first 2-4 waves mean faster results, right? The next thing I am going to say is that, different from disputing, we WANT e-Oscar to handle ALL of our challenges, ALL OF THEM! Our letters are sent via fax (when a working known number is available), USPS is also used for the purpose of our working relationship, also great news for you!

The next thing I am going to say SHOULD NOT be expected, but we have seen great results within hours of sending in our letters of challenge (when a fax was successfully received by the bureaus) It can happen that fast. As a registered Credit Repair Organization (CRO), We cannot guarantee anything will happen, any deletions will occur or that any score will go up. I can only comment on past experiences. That is the law. It also should be known that scores can and will go down initially on some credit files we work on. It is just the nature of the industry.

15-90 days is where our clients historically have seen the greatest results, awesome news for you!

So, there you have it, a complete run down of what Metro2 Compliance is all about and why we do not and will not use disputing as a method of credit enhancement (repair).

Thank You

I appreciate the time you took to read this. I hope that you learned something valuable, and if you have further questions, please contact us so we can clarify anything that you may have a question on.