CR Balance Showing for Charge Off Account

[Anonymous]

I have an old gas-card account (Citibank) that went into collections. I settled the account two years ago with the collections company. My CR line item with the collection company is accurate in showing a zero balance.

However, the Citibank entry still shows a balance as well as the fact that the account was "sold" and a "charge off."

Should I be disputing the fact that the Citibank line item still show a balance? Or is it accurately saying that yes, there was a balance of $500 at the time we sold the account to  the collections company?

Is the fact that it still shows a balance at all affecting my score? There is no "new" reporting ... the reporting stopped at time of payoff, 2 years ago.

I've called the collections company. They believe my CR is correct in showing the Citibank balance at the time the account sold, but I'm not so sure. Citibank won't even discuss with me, since they've sold the account.

Thanks for any input.

[cdtotten]

If the collection is truly sold to another company, the OC must report the balance as $0. They cannot report a balance if it has been sold. If they simply assigned it to another company to collect it for them, then when the collection company was paid, they should both report a $0.

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have an old gas-card account (Citibank) that went into collections. I settled the account two years ago with the collections company. My CR line item with the collection company is accurate in showing a zero balance.

However, the Citibank entry still shows a balance as well as the fact that the account was "sold" and a "charge off."

Should I be disputing the fact that the Citibank line item still show a balance? Or is it accurately saying that yes, there was a balance of $500 at the time we sold the account to  the collections company?

Is the fact that it still shows a balance at all affecting my score? There is no "new" reporting ... the reporting stopped at time of payoff, 2 years ago.

I've called the collections company. They believe my CR is correct in showing the Citibank balance at the time the account sold, but I'm not so sure. Citibank won't even discuss with me, since they've sold the account.

Thanks for any input.

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If the balance and credit limit are both reporting then it likely is being included in your revolving utilization.   How much that effects your score will depend on what your credit limits are on your other cards.   If your utilization is low then it may not be making much of a difference.

[RobertEG]

It depends upon the field code in your credit file that is being referenced.

When a debt is paid, regardless of any prior history or status, the Current Status must be updated to read paid, and the Current Balance updated to $0.

However, that does not extinguish all record of the balance that was charged-off from your credit file.  It is retained in a separate field code that retains  the amt charged-off.

Commercial credit reports often throw out information without clearly designating the field code within your CR where the info was scanned.

If what you are seeing in your CR is supposed to be the current account balance, than yes, it is incorrect if it is reporting anything other than $0.

However, if the CR is posting the charge-off amount, it would be accurate to still show that amount.

How is the balance identified in your CR?

If the OC wont discuss with you, then shoot out a direct dispute to them.  They cant refuse to investigate and report back to you on a dispute over their inaccurate reporting.

They must still, even though they sold the debt, maintain the accuracy of any information that has been reported by them and is still in your credit file.