American Express settled CO being reported inaccurately

[SFernandez13461]

I had an American Express that I defaulted on in 2007 which was eventually charged off, and I started making settlement payments on it in October 2010 and recently made the last payment. During the settlement they never reported any payments being made, but after the final payment they updated it to reflect it was settled for less than the full balance.

But I just noticed they also reported it as a charge off occurring in September 2012 in the payment history. The previous Equifax report I have says "No 81-month payment data available for display," so I'm not sure when or if it was reported as a charge off in the payment history in the past.

The rest of the reporting seems accurate, and I don't have access to my Equifax score, so I don't know whether or not this lowered my score. But that doesn't seem right to me. I already sent in a dispute, but I'm wondering how much impact that would likely have on my score and what I should do about it if it's verified.    

[SFernandez13461]

Any of our resident experts care to weigh in? It doesn't seem like this is being reported accurately to me. 

Frankly, after reading about the settlement between American Express and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, my previously high regard for the company and the way they treat consumers has diminished. Although I appreciated their cooperation in setting up a settlement, I was misled about having the option to participate in Oasis down the line and my payments were never reported over the course of 24 months. I'm just a little disappointed, I guess. I thought American Express was better to their customers, even the ones who had suffered setbacks. 

[llecs]

If you have a CC CO, like Amex, it is supposed to be reporting as a CO monthly with added lates up to the point it was paid off. If you paid it off prior to September, it shouldn't have a late reporting for Sept. The last late should be in the month you paid it off.

If it was paid off in Sept., I'd argue that it is reporting correctly, though it sounds like they failed update like they should have prior to paying it off.

If I had that, I'd send a GW.

[RobertEG]

Was it reported as a charge off taken in September, or was it a reporting in September of the fact of their earlier charge off?  Very different.

A charge off is really a separate issue from delinquencies on the debt incurred by the consumer, and/or payment status of the debt.

It is the reporting of an internal bookeeping measure they took, which does not affect the consumer's continued obligation for the entire debt.

Did they simply update the history to reflect the fact that they took a prior charge off at some point in the past?

[SFernandez13461]

I'm really not sure. The older reports I have don't include any payment history information on the account. It seems to me I had seen the 30, 60, 90, and 120-day lates followed by a CO years ago. I don't know what, if anything, has been reported since then. But now the September reporting says CO. I was under the impression that made it appear that the delinquency had just occurred which would be false. Maybe I'm mistaken.

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It came back verified this afternoon. Maybe I misunderstood the impact of the payment history reporting, but it seems misleading to me. And I'm just annoyed with AmEx right now anyway.