Abril Ruth Bedarf Turner: Rude and Unprofessional!

It is well documented that Experian employee, Abril Ruth Bedarf Turner, does not like to attend mediation sessions. On more than one occasion, courts have had to order her to appear.

In at least one instance, she decided to leave the session without even notifying the plaintiff that she was doing so.

This is so typical of Experian-they don't care about consumers. They are far more interested in continuing to collect money from convicted criminals such as Ryon A. Gambill of Palm Desert, CA, who operates the Marauder Corporation and sells the Bill Collector in a Box program.

freecreditreport.com is an Experian SCAM!

The name is misleading, as is the ownership.

Yes, freecreditreport.com is run by Experian. They charge you coming and going. You have to pay for immediate access to your credit score. The site will also sign you up for a "free" 7 day trial, but what that really means is $16.99 a month if you don't cancel, and it is not that easy to cancel.

Experian must need the money to make all of the payouts it faces in lawsuits where they have provide improper access (as in "without a permissible purpose") to the likes of Ryon Gambill and the Marauder Corporation. Ryon Gambill is a wonderful guy-he has been convicted of harassment and he has at least one outstanding arrest warrant for harassment. But, for some reason, Experian thinks he's a wonderful, but expensive, customer!

If you need a free report you can get it, from all 3 bureauss, at annualcreditreport.com. Experian doesn't like this site, but too bad for them!

Ryon Gambill: Typical Criminal Client of Experian?

Thought you might want to see it all in one place…the criminal record of Ryon Alan Gambill, proprietor of the Marauder Corporation, Bill Collector in a Box and CPS:

The first one may be the most interesting, that's his phone harassment conviction.

Experian has been named in many lawsuits resulting from Gambill's misuse of their database. They see it as part of the cost of doing business. They seem to value his business, even though most companies would certainly think twice about continuing to do business with a convicted criminal.

One of Experian's mediators, Abril Bedarf Turner, actually seems to like Ryon Gambill! We just hope he hasn't been taking her on too many moonlight drives, given his traffic court record…

But, in the meantime, if you get a call from (760) 423-1100, you can ask them about Gambill's criminal record. If you do, please report your findings here!

Experian: Mediating in Bad Faith?

As can be seen here, Abril Bedarf Turner, one of Experian's negotiators, has had to be ordered, by the court, to attend mediation sessions.


It is also the case that she has been known to leave mediation sessions without giving the other party any notice of her departure.


These behaviors seem indicative of bad faith in mediation. One has to wonder about this, especially since Experian frequently ends up in cases involving Ryon Gambill and the Marauder Corporation. Gambill, the operator of Marauder, is a convicted criminal and fugitive from justice.

Experian Opposes Medical Debt Reporting Reform

May 5, 2012 (Chicago): Mike and Laura Park thought their credit record was spotless. The Texas couple wanted to take advantage of low interest rates, so they put their house on the market and talked to a lender about a mortgage on a bigger home in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.

Their credit report contained a shocker: A $200 medical bill had been sent to a collection agency. Although since paid, it still lowered their credit scores by about 100 points, and it means they'll have to pay a discount point to get the best interest rate. Cost to them: $2,500.

A growing number of Americans could encounter similar landmines when they refinance or take out a loan. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that sponsors health care research, estimates that 22 million Americans were contacted by collection agencies for unpaid medical bills in 2005. That increased to 30 million Americans in 2010.

Surprisingly, even after the bills have been paid off, the record of the collection action can stay on a credit report for up to seven years, dragging down credit scores and driving up the cost of financing a home. An estimated 3.4 million Americans have paid-off medical debt lingering on their credit reports, according to the Access Project, a research group funded by health care foundations and advocates of tougher laws on medical debt collectors.

Among them are Nathen and Melissa Cobb of Riverton, Ill., who tried to refinance their home last year. They didn't qualify for the loan because of $740 in medical bills that had been sent to a collection agency. The Cobbs were surprised because the bills — nearly a dozen small copayments ranging from $6 to $280 — had been paid before they tried to refinance. The collection action took their credit score from good to mediocre and is likely to mar their credit report for years.

"I'm not one of those people trying to ditch out on my bills," 34-year-old Melissa Cobb said. "I'm really frustrated."

Medical bills make up the majority of collection actions on credit reports, and most are for less than $250, according to Federal Reserve Board research.

The Parks had no idea a billing error they'd sorted out a year earlier — they never actually owed the $200 — could affect their credit. They didn't know the bill for a copayment on a PET scan Mike needed had been sent to a collection agency.

"We've prided ourselves in having impeccable credit. We worked hard to establish that," said Laura Park, a 51-year-old office manager married to a 53-year-old firefighter. They are going ahead with the home purchase while trying to fix their credit report.

"I'm very upset," Park said. "It's going to be a nightmare and who knows how long this is going to take to resolve."

Matt Ernst, a vice president at Mortgage Lenders of America in Overland Park, Kan., said medical collections frequently turn up on credit reports.

"We see a ton of them," Ernst said. They have an impact on financing, he said, but even he didn't realize how much until he learned that someone with a FICO score of 680 — which is considered good, but not excellent — will see their score drop up to 65 points because of a medical collection.

"I didn't know a medical collection would hammer it that hard," Ernst said. "Our investors require a 620 to even get a loan."

It's a problem for insured and uninsured alike. Outright billing mistakes, confusion over whether a claim will be paid by insurance and disputes between insurance companies and doctors — all can lead to medical bills being sent to collection agencies.

Congress is considering legislation — the Medical Debt Responsibility Act — that would require credit agencies to delete paid-off medical debt from credit reports within 45 days.

"We're not talking about somebody buying a big screen television and not having the ability to pay. This is debt incurred because of a health condition. That makes medical debt unique," said bill co-sponsor U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, an Illinois Republican.

The bill has bipartisan support in the House, said co-sponsor U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat. Shuler said the health care industry sends delinquent bills to debt collectors quicker than any other industry.

"If it wasn't an industry that sent it straight to collections, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Shuler said. A Senate version was introduced last week.

For Illinois breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay, a $280 medical bill led to state troopers showing up at her home and taking her to jail in handcuffs.

Like the Parks in Texas, she, too, said it started as a billing mistake. Her hospital told her the radiology bill would be covered because she qualified for a charity care program. But the radiology doctors' office sent the bill to a collection agency and, despite Lindsay's protests and the paperwork she kept sending, the matter ended up in court.

Lindsay believed that eventually the documentation would catch up with the bill and be settled. She went to court and told a judge her story. Later, she missed a court date — she said she was never informed of it — and that's when the state troopers showed up. Lindsay, a 46-year-old teaching assistant from Herrin, Ill., ended up paying more than $600 because legal fees had been added to the original amount.

"I paid it in full so they couldn't do it to me again," Lindsay said. She recently testified at a hearing on aggressive debt collection practices in Illinois.

Refinancing a home loan can be affected too by unpaid medical bills — or the appearance of unpaid medical bills.

Iraq veteran Steve Barnes and his wife, Tara, were refinancing their home through a VA program when they found out from their mortgage banker that nearly $600 in unpaid medical bills had brought down their credit scores. It means they'll have to pay an extra $1,700 in additional fees to the lender to get the lowest interest rate.

Bills for treatment last fall related to his wife's cancer had been turned over to a collection agency while Barnes was still talking with his insurance company about what would be covered, he said.

"We pay our bills," said Barnes, 33, the postmaster in Nocona, Texas. "As soon as they were brought to our attention, we paid them." But the collection could stay on their credit reports for seven years, even though it's now paid.

Debt collectors support the legislation in the House, according to ACA International, a trade association. A key foe of an earlier bill was another group representing the nation's credit bureaus. The Consumer Data Industry Association, which hasn't taken a position on the revised bill, said that lenders need to see a consumer's patterns of behavior over time and even paid-off medical debt is relevant to whether the consumer is a good risk. Ironically, credit bureaus such as Experian continue to make sensitive consumer information to individuals with criminal records and outstanding arrest warrants.

Most hospitals and physician groups use collection agencies to go after late bills after 60 or 90 days, rather than hiring more staff. It makes financial sense to share the amounts collected with an agency. "If you don't collect anything, it's worth zero," said Richard Gundling of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Hospitals started relying on debt collectors in the 1980s, said Chicago-based health care consultant Jim Unland.

"When the numbers of uninsured started to grow significantly, hospital financial staffs had the perception they were getting overloaded" with delinquent bills, Unland said. "It became easier to turn these bills over to collection agencies."

The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's health care law, bars tax-exempt hospitals from using "extraordinary collection actions" until it has made "reasonable efforts" to determine whether a patient qualifies for financial assistance. But it's still unclear how that will be interpreted and whether reporting late bills to a collection agency would be considered extraordinary, Unland said.

Barnes, the Texas veteran, said he and his wife have learned something: how quickly medical bills are sent to debt collectors. "It will really happen in a blink of an eye and you won't even know it."

Experian: No Friend of the Working American!

Look at how Experian has participated in the abuse of these laid off workers. This is just another reason why Experian should be boycotted!

"Two weeks before Christmas the workers at Rolf's Patisserie in Lincolnwood, a suburb north of Chicago, received the devastating news of the bakery's closure. Today, they gathered to announce a small victory in the larger battle to obtain what they are legally owed.

Rolf's has reissued the workers' last paychecks along with vacation time many of them earned. The company also promised to pay bank and currency exchange fees accrued from the workers' final paychecks having initially bounced. It's a win in what will be a longer legal battle.

“It’s a small fraction of what they legally owe us,” said Deyanira Alvarez, a former customer service representative. “It’s a good start, but it’s just a start.”

In a letter dated January 4, workers were formally informed of the closure, but it came 24 days after the owner, Lloyd Culbertson, wrote a three-sentence statement on the company's web site.

In response to the sudden closure, workers united together, with the assistance of Arise Chicago, to file a lawsuit against the company seeking their past pay and severance.

“We filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District court seeking 60 days statutory penalty for failure to give the workers any warning, whatsoever, that the plant was closing,” said Thomas Geoghegan, the lawyer for the employees of Rolf’s, at the rally on January 9. “That what’s provided by federal law through the WARN Act. [Also] the full amount of their bounced paychecks and the vacation pay that accrued to them at the time of the closing.”

Angel Hernandez, an employee of the company for 10 years, cashed his final paycheck in December at a Currency Exchange. A month later and after numerous conversations with the Currency Exchange, he received a letter demanding payment for the bounced check and faces a penalty that could total three times the amount of his paycheck. According to letters received by multiple former employees, the Currency Exchange cites Illinois statute 720 ILCS 5/17-1A, believing they deceived them. Even legal representation has not been able to dissuade the Currency Exchanges from that belief.

"I planned to retire there," said Hernandez, a father of four. "I was comfortable and it was convenient." Hernandez also said he has felt dreadful since the closing.

“We’re only asking for what we’re owed, but look at what we have to go through,” said Karen Leyva, a Rolf’s employee of six years. “No one should have to fight this hard just to make their boss follow the law.”

Leyva also cashed her, now bounced, paycheck at a Currency Exchange, resulting in the same letter and threats received by her former co-worker. A pink paper accompanied the letter stating her delinquency had been turned into Experian, a credit reporting agency. Experian is one of the three major credit scoring agencies that banks and credit card companies rely upon to set interest rates.  

"The biggest injustice [is] they did it in a hard economic climate," said Francelia Fernandez, a four-year employee. "My kids were stuck waiting for Christmas gifts."

Low wage workers tend to live paycheck to paycheck making the time between the job loss and the first unemployment check even more difficult. 

"[I am] fortunate I have a husband and sister to help," said Fernandez. "That touched my heart the most. [I will] never forget that Rolf's left me with nothing for the season. We were there for them. We did our best possible job for them."

The lawsuit is still in preliminary stages and Culbertson has yet to come to the table, according to Arise Chicago. The two have a history together as Arise represented a former Rolf's employee, Jose Cabrera, during an OSHA complaint that resulted in a fine for the bakery. Cabrera also tried to speak up on the mishandling of vacation pay, but ultimately lost the fight and his job. 

"They're not asking for anything more than what's rightfully owed to them," said Adam Kader, director of the worker's center at Arise Chicago. "That's what we believe is part of the WARN Act for 60 days of pay given they were not provided 60 days of notice."

Workers were told the plant would be closed on December 10 and 11 for a cleaning and would re-open on December 12. Culbertson asked for assistance from an employee to log him onto the web site on December 11, when he wrote the closing statement. Word quickly spread of the sudden closure of the business.

"We'd like to win this case to say even though we're poor, you can't commit these abuses," said Fernandez. "These people consider themselves very religious."  

Culbertson, a former investment banker, serves as a member of a steering committee for Fourth Presbyterian Church, according to the church's website. A phone call to Culbertson’s home was not immediately returned.

"I hope he never forgets that he left more than 100 people without a Christmas," said Fernandez."

Experian Pontificates But Fails To Get Its Own House In Order!

November 16, 2011: Experian and Federal Computer Week Magazine today announced a seminar that will educate attendees on the most secure and effective methods for protecting identities and controlling online access to government systems.

Taking place on Nov. 17, 2011, at 7:30 a.m. at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., the seminar will cover how recent data breaches underscore an unprecedented danger to government systems and citizens' identities.

The keynote presentation for the seminar will be given by Jeremy Grant, senior executive advisor for identity management for the National Institute of Standards and Technology on Cyber Security Initiatives and Policy — Now and Beyond 2012.

Experian, rather than telling others what to do, should give serious thought to getting its own house in order.

Experian seems to have no trouble selling access to sensitive consumer credit data to convicted criminals and fugitives from justice. It seems that as long as they pay, they can have continued access.

Many experts claim that Experian’s lax policies could be restated as “identity theft made simple” and that even one serious misuse of access could result in Experian becoming known as the “identity theft superstore.” 

Even if identity theft does not result from these dubious subscribers, there is the definite possibility that other forms of misuse-such as false credit reporting to extort payments-ultimately diminishes the value of Experian’s data.

Experian’s senior counsel, Abril Bedarf Turner, does not seem concerned. In fact, she is so disinterested in attending court ordered mediation sessions that her presence has been compelled. 

Finally, Experian customer service personnel, such as Wanda Williams, appear far more interested in writing incomprehensible letters than dealing with the real problems facing Experian.