ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 4, 1996 TAG: 9612040068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA
TERRENCE WILLINGHAM isn't Terry D. Willingham, but he's having a hard time getting credit bureaus to make the distinction.
Terrence Willingham is being haunted by a ghost who is wrecking his credit rating.
Terry D. Willingham of Arlington died in a 1991 automobile accident. Somehow, Terrence Willingham said, Terry's debts started showing up on Terrence's credit reports. Five years later, they're still showing up despite repeated attempts to remove them, he said.
``I want this taken care of,'' said Willingham, 46, an Alexandria lawyer who teaches personnel management and ethics to Navy officers. ``They're screwing up my life.''
Frustrated, he has filed a $1.3million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., against a Falls Church collection agency and Equifax Credit Information Service, one of the country's three major credit-reporting companies.
The suit, filed Nov. 26, alleges that Equifax and American Collection Consultants failed to remove Terry D. Willingham's debts from Terrence Willingham's otherwise exemplary credit record.
``They have a dispute process, and it doesn't work,'' Willingham said. ``The creditors were saying it was Equifax's problem. Equifax was saying it was the creditors' problem.''
Equifax spokesman Dave Mooney said the company had no comment on Willingham's suit.
Mooney did say that his company handles more than 1 million credit reports daily with an error rate of less than 1 percent. ``When you look at the volume, there are some errors that occur, and when they do, we take care of them,'' he said.
Terrence Willingham, who has no middle initial, said that in late 1991, he assembled a 10-page dossier outlining the mix-up with the deceased Willingham. He mailed the document to the three credit-reporting agencies and to creditors seeking the dead man's money.
The problem seemed resolved - for a time. But a $519 bill that Terry D. Willingham owed to Giant Food kept appearing on Terrence Willingham's records, and because of it, he said, he was denied credit at least three times.
``You've got my reputation out there,'' Willingham said. ``You've got it going out into the community that I'm not a reputable person.''
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