OC sent me a bill after charge off

[Anonymous]

This is kind of a weird situation and I'm hoping someone has some advice. I have an installment loan from BorrowersFirst that was charged off back in Sept of 2015, but it was never reported to the credit bureaus. About a year later, end of Sept 2016, I get a letter stating that my debt had been charged off again. I check my credit report, and it turns out they reported it for the first time that month. What's stranger is that even though it states it was charged off, it's listed as "open" on the report. So I email the OC's compliance department inquiring about this, and ask for a payment plan to get my account to a "current" status.

I don't receive a response, but then about a week later I receive a billing statement that gives the current amount due, due date, etc, so I'm thinking that they've read my email and are willing to work with me. Boy was I wrong. I phone the OC to make a payment, and I'm told they can't give me any information about the account because it's been sold to a debt collector. I inquire about the billing statement and the rep transfers me to his supervisor, who says they don't know why that was sent out. When I ask if I can speak to the compliance department, the supervisor tells me he is the compliance department and that he won't confirm the compliance department's email address. After asking to speak to someone who I could talk to about the billing statement, he told me that no one in the company would be speaking to me about anything.

Needless to say, I'm not sure what direction to go with this. Their billing statement clearly states the date payment is due and everything. Regardless whether it was sent out in error or not, typically a written document should be honored and I'm willing to pay if it'll remove the charged off status. Other than that, I could dispute through the credit bureau, as they're reporting a balance on it when it should be $0. Not sure what to do. Any advice helps.

[RobertEG]

If the creditor has sold the debt to a debt collector, then yes, they were required to have promptly updated the debt balance owed to them to $0.

If that is the case, then they cannot accept any payment, as you no longer owe them a debt.  Any billing statement would only reflect the amount of the principal that was preveiously owed to them, and would not be basis for the consumer being able to send any payment to them.

Having failed to update the balance on their account to $0 would not require the deletion of the CO or of other info reported on the account.  The dispute would only require correction of that specific item of information.

Presence of a debt collector could lead to that debt collector reporting their collection.

I would request the name of the debt collector and make provisions to pay them before they report a collection.