Macy's Charge-off Dispute regarding inaccuracy.

[A1Credit]

I have attempted to dispute the accuracy of a paid Macy's charge-off with the bureaus but I have had no luck.  They are reporting different DOFD on my Experian and Transunion credit reports.  They even reported another charge-off update for April after I paid them off in February.  Can they do that?  My payment history shows a charge-off status all the way up until Feb, which is when I paid it off, then pays as agrees in March but turned around in April and updated it as CO again.  I am unsure as to what is reporting on Equifax.  What steps do I need to take to get this resolved?  I would like for them to remove the tradeline completely but I understand that they are under no obligation to do so.  What should I do?

[RobertEG]

FCRA 623(a)(5) details the reporting of DOFD to the CRAs.  It mandates that an original creditor must report the accurate DOFD to any CRA to which they have reported a charge-off within 90 days after they report the charge-off.

It is required reporting, and a given creditor must report the same, accurate date to the CRAs.  Yes, a dispute would clearly be appropriate.

If you agree with one reported date and not the other, then I would dispute with the CRA the one that you consider to have the inaccurate reporting.

The continued reporting of the charge-off is a bit trickier.

It depends upon how they are reporting.

Once paid, the current status can no longer show one of account delinquency, and thus must show paid rather than delinquent of charged-off.

However, the reported charge-off will still properly be reflected in the reported Payment Rating, and under the Payment History Profile.

It thus continues to affect scoring, even if the current status is incorrectly still showing CO.

Yes, it should be corrected if the currrent status is inaccurate, but it will not impact your scoring.  It will simply clarify the current status if a party is doing a manual review and sees a current status that still reflects account delinquency.

Neither dispute would require deletion of the account or of the reported charge-off.

[A1Credit]

@RobertEG thanks for the response. I'm not sure of the DOFD so I guess I will dispute the one that has a later date. They reported a CO status in the history for April although it was paid off in February. Are they allowed to keep updating the account?

[RobertEG]

The CRA reporting manual instructs furnishers to discontinue updated reporting after the debt is paid.

However, it wont extend the effective delinquency, and thus impact scoring, as the current status is no longer one of delinquency.