Paid collection account showing late

[disputeissues]

Hi,

I've been battling with a paid collection from 2008 that keeps dinging my score. Short story is, it was a vet bill I wasn't aware of. I paid it immediately when it showed up on my report - it was only for $204. They refuse to take GW letters or remove it. Disputing as incorrectly reporting and they immediately confirm reporting correctly - but they tell me it should be closed and should not be showing late since it was paid in full in Oct 2008.

Pulling myfico and usaa shows it's not reported under collection accounts but instead under open active accounts - and is reporting open and late but a comment of paid collection with $0 balance. Is this normal? Is there *anything* I can do about this? It's impacting my score by over 50 points unfortunately and neither the vet nor equifax have been able to help at all. Equifax claims the creditor is reporting it late still and open and active, the creditor claims (correctly) that the last activity is 2008 and it's paid and closed as the comment shows.

(Please replace spaces, I cant post links as I am new..)
USAA report screen shot: box net/shared/xrmpd44ct9cl9mayv6gh

Myfico (Report from August): box net/shared/bsr7tkrdxksdjuc3tght

Any insight or suggestions? Thanks!

[Lian]

What you are seeing is probably the reporting of the OC, not the debt collector.

Debt collectors cannot report "lates." Only the creditor can do that. You did not have an account with the debt collector upon which to be "late." There are no credit reporting codes for a debt collector to report account lates.

Here is how you credit report should read.

Upon payment of the debt, the collection should now report as closed, $0 debt for collection.

The OC account should already have been reported as closed, as a collection is only taken on closed accounts. If the OC is still reporting their account as open, it should be updated to closed. The OC should update the debt balance to $0, and the current status should simply read "paid."

[disputeissues]

Sorry - I should note, the "collection" was done by the OC - there was no third party CA - it is simply listed as paid collection as a comment on the OC as you see in my screen shots. This was before I knew anything about pay for delete, etc - hadn't had any credit issues other than this..

The OC account is still open, reporting, and every time i try to take any corrective action on this they verify it and equifax shows up as an active 120 days late again as of that month.

The vet uses some third party software to report to credit agencies and they apparently have a limited ability to modify things reported. They have been very responsive and really did try to resolve it - but finally told me there was nothing they could do. In their system it shows as paid collection, as of October 2008 - as you can see in the myfico screen shot it shows last activity of Oct 2008 but 120+ late many times since..

I've battled equifax and the vet on this - with no resolution for over 8 months unfortunately - I really cant believe its reporting correctly as every time I try to get this corrected my score is dinged for a recent missed payment (not to mention it makes zero sense!)

Any other suggestions? Your feedback lines up with how it should report - but I cant convince anyone else of that

Thanks again!

[disputeissues]

Sorry - more info:

I looked at the last dispute results from EQ and the "status" varies from a little from the screenshots above:

Status - Collection Account; Type of Account - Open; Type of Loan - Medical Debt; Whose Account - Individual Account; ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - Paid Collection

Date of last payment: 10/2008
Terms Frequency: Monthly
Credit Limit $0
Balance amount: $0
Charge off amount $0 ... etc..

Most of this lines up with my reports from above and the account history includes code "G" (Collection account) for the months in screenshots reporting 120 days late. Also it's a monthly collection account? but its reporting on my fico as a regular open account, not a collection account.

Any insight or suggestions on action to take? Thanks again!

[Lian]

I cant see your screen shots, but there is no such thing as a collection reported by an OC.

Collections are reported by debt collectors. In-house collection efforts on the part of an OC do not have their own credit reporting codes. I have never heard of an OC even reporting a special comment that references their collection efforts. Every OC with delinquent debt is inherently "collecting" on it. So you apparently don't have a "collection" reporting. Puzzling...

I am also kinda puzzled as to how the CO could both keep the account open, and yet report in any fashion collection efforts. It just makes no sense to me. Are you certain the account is still open? From a 120-day delinquency several years ago? I find that unlikely.

If still open, you would legitimately still be able to incur additionally monthly delinquencies. Are they still billing you?
An OC is entitled to continue reporting old lates every month, even if they are the same lates. This updates nothing in your CR of scoring substance, and does not "re-age" the date of the delinquency. It is just a repetition of what is of record. What is the date of the delinquency they are continuing to report?

[disputeissues]

Originally Posted by Lian

I cant see your screen shots, but there is no such thing as a collection reported by an OC.

Collections are reported by debt collectors. In-house collection efforts on the part of an OC do not have their own credit reporting codes. I have never heard of an OC even reporting a special comment that references their collection efforts. Every OC with delinquent debt is inherently "collecting" on it. So you apparently dont have a "collection" reporting. Puzzling...

I am also kinda puzzled as to how the CO could both keep the account open, and yet report in any fashion collection efforts. It just makes no sense to me. Are you certain the account is still open? From a 120-day delinquency several years ago? I find that unlikely.

If still open, you would legitimately still be able to incur additionally monthly delinquencies. Are they still billing you?
An OC is entitled to continue reporting old lates every month, even if they are the same lates. This updates nothing in your CR of scoring substance, and does not "re-age" the date of the delinquency. It is just a repetition of what is of record. What is the date of the delinquency they are continuing to report?

Just realized I could upload the screenshots here! Sorry about that.. They are attached.

The account should not be open, like you say it was a collection account. I never opened an account nor had any terms with them, this was a medical collection (vet) and consisted of a one time payment so it shouldn't be monthly and I have no ongoing business with them nor have received any bills since payment

Where would the date of deliquency be? Under my account history it shows delinquent currently - and USAA shows the account as delinquent not in collection.

The account owner is the vet, not a collection agency.

Thanks again, this has been driving me crazy for some time...

[Lian]

Thanks for the screen shot. It helps explain...

First, there is a distinction between account type and account status.

There are three types of overall account types:

1. Revolving- you have a fixed CL that you can draw against, and your debt and payment revolves around your current balance.

2. Installment- credit issued with a fixed term and monthly amt of payment.

3.Open credit- Balance due in full monthly.

It appears that the OC account is an "open" line of credit, which makes sense since the vet bill was due when posted. The account credit type can read "open," but the account status should read "closed."
The current account status, while also using the term "open," is different.

When an account is closed, there are different "current status" codes to reflect its snapshot as of that date. It does NOT reflect any prior account status.

Unpaid accounts include a statement of the current level of account delinquency as of that date. If a delinquent, unpaid account has reached a level of 120+ days late, that would be its current status. However, once paid, the current status MUST be updated to read "Paid." No other current status applies. Simply paid.

The highest status of prior delinquency is retained in a separate code called the Payment Rating. Current status never reflects any prior status.

In your CR, the OC has correctly reported the current balance to be $0, but neglected to update the current status code to "Paid." Again, current status in your situation can only read "Paid." It is apparently an oversight on their part, but it is not the correct current status.

The statement of collection under the OC account reporting is NOT the reporting of a collection. It is just a record that at some point, the OC reported that they had referred the account for external debt collector collection. A collection is the actual reporting of the debt collector to the CRA.

[disputeissues]

Originally Posted by Lian

Thanks for the screen shot. It helps explain...

First, there is a distinction between account type and account status.

There are three types of overall account types:

1. Revolving- you have a fixed CL that you can draw against, and your debt and payment revolves around your current balance.

2. Installment- credit issued with a fixed term and monthly amt of payment.

3.Open credit- Balance due in full monthly.

It appears that the OC account is an "open" line of credit, which makes sense since the vet bill was due when posted. The account credit type can read "open," but the account status should read "closed."
The current account status, while also using the term "open," is different.

When an account is closed, there are different "current status" codes to reflect its snapshot as of that date. It does NOT reflect any prior account status.

Unpaid accounts include a statement of the current level of account delinquency as of that date. If a delinquent, unpaid account has reached a level of 120+ days late, that would be its current status. However, once paid, the current status MUST be updated to read "Paid." No other current status applies. Simply paid.

The highest status of prior delinquency is retained in a separate code called the Payment Rating. Current status never reflects any prior status.

In your CR, the OC has correctly reported the current balance to be $0, but neglected to update the current status code to "Paid." Again, current status in your situation can only read "Paid." It is apparently an oversight on their part, but it is not the correct current status.

The statement of collection under the OC account reporting is NOT the reporting of a collection. It is just a record that at some point, the OC reported that they had referred the account for external debt collector collection. A collection is the actual reporting of the debt collector to the CRA.

Thank you so much for the reply - you've been ridiculously helpful..

My last question, I promise, is, see attached screen shot from the last EQ dispute I filed. My "Status" reported is "Collection Account". This is the field that should read paid? The OC confirmed that the current status and history is correct, and refuses to budge.. Equifax refers me to the OC.. Are there *ANY* actions I can take to get this resolved?

Thanks again Lian, please check your PM for a thank you.

[JoeMurphy]

Disputeissues-

If you view the far right part of the information it says "Paid Collection". The account status in this case is just displaying the way the account is categorized, so in this example "Collection Account". The account is "Open" because as Lian said the payment was due upon your receipt. I don't see what further you could with this account because with the information you have provided it unfortunately was sent to a collection agency and was reported. The best advice I could give you is in the future be as devouted as you have been to this issue with all of your bills and issues on your credit report. It is unfortunate that it happened but let it be a learning experience for you!

-Joe

[disputeissues]

Originally Posted by JoeMurphy

Disputeissues-

If you view the far right part of the information it says "Paid Collection". The account status in this case is just displaying the way the account is categorized, so in this example "Collection Account". The account is "Open" because as Lian said the payment was due upon your receipt. I don't see what further you could with this account because with the information you have provided it unfortunately was sent to a collection agency and was reported. The best advice I could give you is in the future be as devouted as you have been to this issue with all of your bills and issues on your credit report. It is unfortunate that it happened but let it be a learning experience for you!

-Joe

Hi Joe,

But should this account status (not type, i understand the difference now) still be open? It reports as an open account and as an account with collection/late activity well beyond my payment date. My payment history shows "120 late" for several months on USAA/MyFICO and "collection account" on my equifax dispute for months well after my account was entirely paid. Each month they report this late again (happens every few months) my score takes a dive...