Are old collections supposed to indicate that they were paid?

[Racker]

Hi.  I just got my credit reports and they were pretty good (between 730 and 760), but are marred by a collection from 2008.  I had bought a Gamefly (basically Netflix for video games) for my younger brother, who rented a couple of games from them.  Not long after I had the card I purchased the subscription on replaced.  Since my brother never returned the games and Gamefly could not charge the defunct card for them, the account went into collection. 

In 2011, the collection was brought to my attention by the credit union I was taking an auto loan through.  I contacted Gamefly and paid the $80 that was owed on the account. 

Looking at my credit report and score now, I see the collection listed, but it doesn't mention ever being settled; only that it was opened in 2008.  Is this normal, or should I be worried that the collection agency never got the memo that the account was settled?

[takeshi74]

They should as there is a significant difference between a paid collection and an unpaid collection.  Make sure you're not missing it under a more detailed view of your report.  I forget which report I was looking at but it didn't show any account statuses on the summary page and required clicking for details for the account status.

[RobertEG]

Any party who has reported information to a CRA has a continuing obligation to timely update their reporting so as to reflect its current accuracy.  FCRA 623(a)(2).

So yes, they had a statutory requirement, once becoming aware that the debt was settled, and thus no longer under collection, to have timely updated their reporting to show $0 under collection, and Closed for their collection.

I would suggest calling the debt collector, and reminding them of their statutory responsibility to have made the required reporting.

Once their collection was closed, they most likely just let it slip, and moved on to bigger fish.  No profit in taking time to update the collection.

I would suggest reserving any formal dispute until they are given informal opportunity to simply update.  Give them a call, and ask that they update in their next reporting cycle.

As a side note, you may wish to consider the fact that, if you only became aware of their  collection via a pull of your CR, they may have been in violation of FDCPA 809(a) due to not having sent dunning notice within 5 days after their reporting of the collection back when.

The intent of that requirement is to prevent a consumer from having damage to their credit reporting without their knowledge that could go on for sme time.

You clearly experienced damage, and could file a formal complaint with the CFPB for their violation.

You may wish to bring that fact to their attention, and offer not to file a complaint if they delete their reporting from your CR..........