Conns/ GC services dilemma is fcra being violated? Help!!

[Anonymous]

On march 9th I settled an account that has been charged off by conns, which conns has told me the sold to a third party collector which is GC services. GC services is who I settled with, however they are telling me they just work for conns. I've called both Conns and GC service multiple times and have gotten the same answer all times, conns saying they sold the debt to gc services, and gc services saying that they just work for conns. Here is my dilemma. Conns is still reporting a charged off 1589 balance on my credit report monthly on equifax, they don't report the updates to the other two cb though but the balance is there for them. Conns refuses to update my account to a zero balance. I'm trying to get a mortgage and this is all that is holding it up. My closing date is may 3rd. This will make or break it. GC services is not reporting on my credit, just Conns. Conns and gc services are refusing to even give my information to the credit bureaus as I have had them call and given authorization to Conns to release the zero balance information. I hope this makes sense. I'm so upset. Is any of this legal? Are they violating any FCRA laws? I've paid GC services and I know Conns has the information as I verified it last week, I've just called this week playing dumb to see if they sold the account or not which I've been told they have but they refuse to give the info to the credit bureaus. Someone please help!!!

[RobertEG]

First, make sure that the balance you are looking at is the Current Balance, and not the amount of the debt that was subject to charge-off.

Your credit report retains as a separate sticky-post the amount that was charged-off, and that is not updated when the debt is sold or paid.

The current balance must be $0 on the OC account.

The issue of whether the debt collector owned the debt or was only assigned collection authority only determines when the OC was requried to have updated to $0 balance.

If they sold the debt, they were required to have updated to $0 promptly after they sold the debt.

If they retained ownership, they were required to have updated to $0 promptly after receiving notice from their debt collector of payment of the debt.

The statutory requirement is FCRA 623(a)(2), which requires any furnisher to promptly update their reporting as necessary to maintain its current accuracy.

If informal attempts to get the balance updated have failed, then file a dispute with the CRA, asserting an incorrect balance, and lack of compliance with FCRA 623(a)(2) in failing to have updated once aware of payment of the debt.

The dispute must be completed by the CRA within 30 days of filing, and results mailed to you within five business days thereafter.

They may resolve earlier, but you are ensured of resolution of the dispute within approx a month and a half.

[Anonymous]

i am going through this with txu/convergent right now. txu says they sold it to convergent; convergent says they dont report to the credit agenties only to txu. i have not paid yet but when i talked to experian yesterday they said when you pay you should request for a reciept. when you have that receipt or even a bank statement (something showing you paid) even a letter/email from them stating there is a 0 balance. you can dispute it for either paid in full or balance is incorrect. submit paperwork you have and the ca's should get it removed for you. you can still submit if you dont have the paperwork its just faster with it.

hope this helps.

[RobertEG]

The burden is on the party who has reported information to a CRA to promptly update that reporting when necessary to maintain its current accuracy.

If the consumer files a dispute with the CRA, the CRA is required to refer the dispute to the furnisher, and the furnisher is required to conduct a reasonable investigation of the dispute and respond back to the CRA prior to thirty days from filing of the dispute.

If the furnisher verifies the accuracy as reported and the debt was either paid or sold, they have failed to conduct a reasonable investigation by verifying accuracy back to the CRA.  That then permits the consumer to bring civil action against the furnisher, with civil liability dependent upon whether their lack of reasonable investigation was willful or negligent.

I would strongly recommend the immediate filing of a dispute via the CRA, thus requiring the furnisher to conduct an investigation and respond back to the CRA within thirty days, which they apparently have been refusing to do.