Credit reporting disputes have become the industry equivalent of ants at a picnic, an endless headache with no sign of relief in sight.
More individuals are using the option to dispute debts with the credit bureaus as a means of delaying or trying to get out of making their payments, or worse, trying to get collection agencies into legal trouble.
Ontario Systems and Palinode recently announced a partnership that will make it easier and more efficient for customers to manage disputes via e-OSCAR (Online Solution for Complete and Accurate Reporting), an online dispute-resolution tool used by the three major credit bureaus.
“Credit reporting has become cost prohibitive,” said Rozanne Andersen the chief compliance officer with Ontario Systems. “This is a way to lessen the cost burden. “
Ontario Systems has gone ahead and built several interfaces that its customers can use to interact with Palinode’s technology. Palinode’s product, called Sonnet, helps automate much of the workflow that goes along with investigating and responding to disputes via e-OSCAR.
“What we’re seeing are 200%, 300% gains in productivity,” said Joe Storey, Palinode’s president. “And that’s not because we are investigating disputes less. We are actually investigating them more. We’re freeing up time to be more thorough.”
Storey said that he has had some customers who have actually started reporting to more credit bureaus because Sonnet has helped them respond to disputes it a more timelier fashion.
Ontario Systems’ customers that have had their systems customized to specific requests are also able to take advantage of this new partnership agreement, Storey said.