Advice for my brother and his credit/collection issue

[keith]

My younger brother's car finally died (early 90's camry with ~320k miles!).

We came up with a plan to buy a used car from a private seller via Craigslist, and have him get a loan from our credit union. I co-signed for him, which allows us to get a pretty great interest rate. However we hit one snag at the bank...

The bank says that we are approved for the loan, but under the stipulation that my brother clears up a single negative collections item on his credit report. We hadn't checked his report before hand (my bad!) so the negative item was a surprise. We had no idea what it was, but after leaving the bank we made a guess...

In 2012, brother was pulled over for expired vehicle tabs. Police officer said "email me your proof of new tabs within X number of days, and the ticket disappears". Brother complies - purchases new tabs, emails the officer the evidence of new tabs, and the officer replies to the email with an acknowledgement (we still have this entire email exchange). The officer fails to hold up his end of the deal to make the ticket disappear - so the ticket was never paid and went into collections. Brother never received a single phone call or mail regarding the item either!

The bank tells us the item on the report was from "KING COUNTY DIS", its cut off, but we assumed it was King County District Court. This week my brother calls the court and they say they have no record of this ticket or any item going to collections for him!

So now we feel stuck.

We don't know what collections company to call. The court has no idea what we are talking about, or maybe we called the wrong department? The bank wants evidence that this debt is clear before fulfilling the loan - and it seems like its going to be difficult to get that done in the timeframe the loan app is open for (30 days, starting on 10/29).

Any ideas for how we can get this resolved in a time sensitive manner?

[lsalinas]

I think you should call the credit reporting agency and request more information and/or contest the item on the report.  The contesting part might not be quick, but they might be able to quickly give your brother more information on what King County Dis charges are for and who reported the item.  It might give you more clues on who to call to clear it up in case its not the ticket for the tabs that is on the report but some other random county fee/ticket.

[gooki]

Or visit the district court yourself, and ask for confirmation in writing.

[Numbers Man]

You speak to the credit reporting agency and explain the situation where you have proof of the email exchange and they will tell you their procedure to clear up the problem and get it taken off the credit report.

I did this for a medical bill last year with Equifax.

[keith]

You speak to the credit reporting agency and explain the situation where you have proof of the email exchange and they will tell you their procedure to clear up the problem and get it taken off the credit report.

I did this for a medical bill last year with Equifax.

Ok thanks, will try this!

[keith]

I assume you've heard the cautionary tales about co-signing, and you are prepared for the possibility that you'll end up paying for your brother's car if he doesn't or can't?

You seem like a nice and thoughtful guy, but when I read "cosign" my bad-idea antennae popped up. :)

Cheers.

Yes, I certainly am aware and expected this to come up. Co-signing is required because the bank believes that person won't be able to pay them, so I fully understand the risk that I would be on the hook for the balance if that happened. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else either unless they fully understand it.

I'm involved here because:
* I have full trust that he can afford the payments on time. He has a full time job, is doing great with his savings now, and the loan amount is small (~$3200).
* Aside from this mistaken item on the credit report - he doesn't have bad credit, he just doesn't have enough established credit and needs to get started.
* He would get the benefit of a great interest rate through my co-sign.
* I have cash on hand to pay everything off in case the shit hit the fan.

[Daleth]

If the King County District Court has no record of it, I would just contest it with the credit reporting bureau as being "not mine" or something I don't recognize. When you do that, the bureau has to call the creditor. If the creditor is the King County District Court and they can't find a record of it when the credit bureau calls, the credit bureau has to remove it from your report.