Please help! What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

I will try to make this brief.  I owed an online college roughly 5000.00, and it wasn't showing up on my report.  Got a dunning notice and entered into a payment plan of 400.00 a month.  Made my first payment on May 1st made out to the college (law firm is collecting on their behalf".  I get an alert today from the college and the message is "Account is deemed uncollectable by creditor and is written off as 'Bad Debt' or 'Loss'".  Then there is a 0 dollar balance and I got dinged 17 points!! What does this mean? And why would they say it's a loss or uncollectable if they are collecting my money?? I want to cry because I have worked so hard and now this! Now I will have to wait another year before looking for a house because this is now my most recent derog! 

[damnedanddetermined]

Im no expert, by any means...but my take on it is that it looks to me like the OC has signed off on it (hence the o balance) because the CA (attorney office) has starting collecting on it. When a CA starts reporting/collecting the OC has to report a zero balance. Im not sure its anything to worry about, but do not miss any payments to that CA...anyone else want to chime in?

[Anonymous]

When you say it like that it makes sense except... Why am I writing the checks to the college then?  When I fill out the money order no information is on it from the collection agency. And why does it say "has been 90 days or more past due"? And why report a 0 balance to the collection company now when they never reported a balance to begin with? 

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@damnedanddetermined wrote:

Im no expert, by any means...but my take on it is that it looks to me like the OC has signed off on it (hence the o balance) because the CA (attorney office) has starting collecting on it. When a CA starts reporting/collecting the OC has to report a zero balance. Im not sure its anything to worry about, but do not miss any payments to that CA...anyone else want to chime in?

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[damnedanddetermined]

sounds like the college still owns the debt, but has assigned it to the CA to help collect. I would def call the college to get clarification and ask them to report this debt accurately under the FCRA!

[gdale6]

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@damnedanddetermined wrote:

Im no expert, by any means...but my take on it is that it looks to me like the OC has signed off on it (hence the o balance) because the CA (attorney office) has starting collecting on it. When a CA starts reporting/collecting the OC has to report a zero balance. Im not sure its anything to worry about, but do not miss any payments to that CA...anyone else want to chime in?

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The OC does not have to 0 the balance owed when they engage a CA to collect on their behalf. The only time the OC has to 0 the balance is when you pay it off or they sell the debt to a JDB.

OP I would contact the college and request removal of the TL as part of your agreement to repay.