Excessive Credit Check from Comcast
"In general, it is unusual for a credit check to occur when you are terminating a contract, since you are no longer requesting credit. If the credit check was a ""hard pull"" it will stay on your credit report for 2 years, but will only have an impact on your credit score for up to 12 months. If the check is a ""soft pull"" it has no impact on your credit score. Since you're past the 12 months boundary anyway, I wouldn't worry about it.  That being said, please feel free to continue your investigation and report back if you can get Comcast to admit they performed the 2nd credit check. I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear their explanation for it."
You can't make your bank do a charge back. This function is to assist with straight up fraud, not a customer service mistake. (Think spoofed or stolen card or if a vendor intentionally acted fraudulently.) While you may believe what they did is fraud, your bank will require that you provide the vendor with the opportunity to rectify the situation themselves. Trying to call back and giving up after a long hold time won't meet their standards. If banks started letting anyone unhappy with a vendor start doing charge backs, they would be doing nothing else all day. The issues you're describing has not reached the threshold for the bank to authorize a charge back.  Comcast has local and regional offices, and you could go in person to speak with someone. Maybe there isn't one near you. There are non-peak hours which wait times will be less. You'll just have to grin and bear it if you truly want the money back. Then, take your business elsewhere and post bad reviews online. Always keep in mind that when you eventually speak with someone, they will not be the person that messed up, and you should be overly nice and polite to them. I promise it will yield far better results than being surly and demanding. Another way to get Comcast's attention would be to file a complaint with the BBB. It might take longer, but I've had this work with big companies, usually with good results. Again, be nice to whomever contacts you. In reference to your recent duplicate question: Mastercard won't be able to help at all. They play no part in the transaction at all. &gt;That's one reason why they let you get access to your credit score, to check it the data is correct and make the 'product' (data about you) better.  If that were true, checking your credit report regularly would be straight forward and free. However, the credit agencies have turned insuring your credit report is actuate into a revenue stream. You can see raw data that goes into your score once a year, because the agencies are required by law to provide that you. In past the agencies have been criticized for trying to trick people into buying their services when they request their annual free report (see [freecreditreport.com vs annualcreditreport.com](http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/02/24/want-to-see-your-credit-report-for-free-freecreditreportcom-vs-annualcreditreportcom/)). If you want to check the accuracy of credit report more than once a year, you have to pay. If you want to know your score, you have to pay, although many credit cards offer this as a perk. As noted above, this is likely going to need (several) lawyers to straighten out.  I am not a lawyer, but I think one should be retained ASAP. However, in the meantime: The authorized user should not be making any charges.  Continuing to do so at this point may be a criminal offense.  For the protection of any other heirs, this should be brought to the attention of the credit card issuer and law enforcement authorities.  As it stands, the account holder's estate will be liable for the full debt, and the authorized user's estate would be untouched.   Of course, all this could change if other heirs challenge the estate and file civil suits, in which case it's likely that both estates will be eaten up with legal fees anyway. You check your 401(k) retirement account, making sure your portfolio is carefully balanced. You scan your bank and credit card statements from time to time to verify the charges. These are things responsible people do.  &gt;But there’s a good chance you’ve spent time recently on a chore you didn’t sign up for: finding out if hackers possibly stole information about you from Equifax Inc.,  That's where you're wrong, kiddo. Why would I need to freeze my credit? Because someone else was stupid?  Ah, hahaha, ha. nope. This is great news. Proving that Comcast is effectively (albeit indirectly) throttling specific traffic would be difficult in court, to a judge or jury. But regulators have significant expertise. They will understand Netflix's arguments. Also, since Netflix has signed a deal, they will not look like outsiders just wishing to join the party. They are complaining about their own business partners!  I now expect the Comcast/TimeWarner merger to be stopped. Lobbying won't help them at this point, so I wouldn't be surprised if Comcast starts running ads to buttress their weak case. Yes, you did. To give an example of the contract terms that allow this, the [Capital One credit card agreement](https://www.capitalone.com/media/doc/credit-cards/Credit-Card-Agreement-for-Consumer-Cards-in-Capital-One-N.A.pdf) states:  &gt; Credit Reports &gt;  &gt; We may report information about your Account to credit bureaus and others. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your Account may be reflected in your credit report. Information we provide may appear on your and the Authorized Users’ credit reports. &gt; &gt; If you believe that we have reported inaccurate information about your Account to a credit bureau or other consumer reporting agency, notify us in writing at PO Box 30281, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0281. When you write, tell us the specific information that you believe is incorrect and why you believe it is incorrect. &gt; &gt; We may obtain and use credit, income and other information about you from credit bureaus and others as the law allows. For most, it's usually $30 to initially freeze ($10 x 3 major credit bureaus) then $30 in the future to unfreeze for a certain time frame each time you need a credit check, ie applying for a credit card, mortgage, auto lease. It may well be worth it to avoid thousands of dollars of losses from identity theft but still doesn't seem low cost to me. Looked into it but will take my chances. Equifax is super sketchy to not make at least their own freezing service free for life given their huge screwup. $20 for every credit check for the rest of my life would have been more reasonable but still a decent amount of money. What you are describing here is the opposite of a problem: You're trying to contact a debt-collector to pay them money, but THEY'RE ignoring YOU and won't return your calls!  LOL!  All joking aside, having 'incidental' charges show up as negative marks on your credit history is an annoyance- thankfully you're not the first to deal with such problems, and there are processes in place to remedy the situation. Contact the credit bureau(s) on which the debt is listed, and file a petition to have it removed from your history.  If everything that you say here is true, then it should be relatively easy. Edit: See here for Equifax's dispute resolution process- it sounds like you've already completed the first two steps. Unsolicited credit checks like that don't affect your credit score. Those checks only count if they result from you applying for credit somewhere. So No. "I had about $16k in student loans. I defaulted on the loans, and they got  > passed to a collection type agency (OSCEOLA).  These guys are as legitimate as a collection agency can be. One thing that I feel is very sketchy is when they were verifying my identity they said ""Does your Social Security Number end in ####. Is your Birthday Month/Day/Year.""  That is not sketchy. It would be sketchy for a caller to ask you to give that information; that's a common scheme for identity theft. OSCEOLA are following the rules on this one. My mom suggested I should consider applying for bankruptcy Won't help. Student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. You have the bankruptcy ""reform"" act passed during the Bush 43 regime for that. The loan itself is from school. What school? Contact them and ask for help. They may have washed their hands of your case when they turned over your file to OSCEOLA. Then again, they may not. It's worth finding out.   Also, name and shame the school. Future applicants should be warned that they will do this.  What can I do to aid in my negotiations with this company? Don't negotiate on the phone. You've discovered that they won't honor such negotiations. Ask for written communications sent by postal mail. Keep copies of everything, including both sides of the canceled checks you use to make payments (during the six months and in the future). Keep making the payments you agreed to in the conversation six months ago. Do not, EVER, ignore a letter from them. Do not, EVER, skip going to court if they send you a summons to appear. They count on people doing this. They can get a default judgement if you don't show up. Then you're well and truly screwed. What do you want? You want the $4K fee removed. If you want something else, figure out  what it is. Here's what to do: Write them a polite letter explaining what you said here. Recount the conversation you had with their telephone agent where they said they would remove the $4K fee if you made payments.  Recount the later conversation. If possible give the dates of both conversations and the names of the both agents.   Explain the situation completely. Don't assume the recipient of your letter knows anything about your case. Include evidence that you made payments as agreed during the six months. If you were late or something, don't withhold that.  Ask them to remove the extra $4K from your account, and ask for whatever else you want. Send the letter to them with a return receipt requested, or even registered mail. That will prevent them from claiming they didn't get it. And it will show them you're serious. Write a cover letter admitting your default, saying you relied on their negotiation to set things straight, and saying you're dismayed they aren't sticking to their word. The cover letter should ask for help sorting this out. Send copies of the letter with the cover letter to: Be sure to mark your letter to OSCEOLA ""cc"" all these folks, so they know you are asking for help. It can't hurt to call your congressional representative's office and ask to whom you should send the letter, and then address it by name. This is called Constituent Service, and they take pride in it. If you send this letter with copies you're letting them know you intend to fight.  The collection agency may decide it's not worth the fight to get the $4K and decide to let it go.   Again, if they call to pressure you, say you'd rather communicate in writing, and that they are not to call you by telephone. Then hang up.  Should I hire a lawyer?  Yes, but only if you get a court summons or if you don't get anywhere with this. You can give the lawyer all this paperwork I've suggested here, and it will help her come up to speed on your case. This is the kind of stuff the lawyer would do for you at well over $100 per hour. Is bankruptcy really an option Certainly not, unfortunately. Never forget that student lenders and their collection agencies are dangerous and clever predators. You are their lawful prey. They look at you, lick their chops, and think, ""food."" Watch John Oliver's takedown of that industry.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUAntt1z2c Good luck and stay safe." I agree.  I pulled my free reports (by going to ftc.gov first to get link to the truly free reports).   The Equifax data was out of date.  Didn't​ bother trying to correct it.    As I don't need any new credit lines, I just put a security freeze on my records at all four bureaus.  Makes my data virtually worthless to any potential identity their, and (best of all) nearly worthless to the bureaus. In a nutshell, not really.  That's the risk you take when you co-sign for someone.  The lender only made the loan because of the strength of your brother's credit, not your mother's, so his reputation (in the form of his credit rating) is going to take the hit because of his mother's behaviors. The one thing he can do is this:  The credit bureaus allow you to add a comment or explanation to your credit file which may be helpful, provided potential creditors read it, which is never a guarantee.  It's worth trying though, so suggest to him to look into it. Here's a link for him/you/anyone to look at that can help explain how this works and what effects it can have: Adding a comment to your credit file for negative items I hope this helps. Good luck! Yes, there is.  I was a victim of Experian's breach last year.  The only thing these credit reporting agencies sell is their opinion.  If their opinion is not worth shit because they are compromised, then what they sell has little value.  Next time you hear a lender explaining to you this credit score thingy, ask them if they still remember how to underwrite without it, because it is going away.  They will look at you and try to carefully explain its importance, but you are under no obligation to believe them.  Tell them COBOL sucks, and so does much of the '80s music they still listen to. It's always a good idea to check your credit history on a regular basis - try checking your credit score from one of the independent providers recently (like Equifax) ?  Maybe that will offer a clue what PayPal is doing. I should add that it's a good defensive measure in case your information gets hacked, as mine likely has. You need to do it with all three agencies, and it costs five of ten dollars. Equifax has waived the Dee.