Portfolio Recovery reported collection after paying.

[Anonymous]

I had a $609 debt with Capital One that was sold to Portfolio Recovery. Trying to be proactive in my credit, I called Capital one to pay them. They told me to contact Portfolio. At this time, only Capital One was being reported on my credit. I called Portfolio and paid them in full. Two days after I paid they reported it to Experian as a collection account. I called Portfolio and asked them why they reported it after the fact. They just gave me the run around saying they were going to report the debt either way and they are required to. I told them that they are not legally required to report it after I paid, when they didn't report it prior to that. It caused a significant decrease in my credit score. I asked to speak with a supervisor and told him the situation. I explained that I would like it completely deleted since it wasn't being reported to begin with and I contacted them to pay the debt, because I wanted to pay my debts even if it wasn't on my credit report. He said they won't fix it. The original goal was to pay the debt and write a gw to capital one to possibly have them update or even delete their tradeline, instead now I have two bad ones because of Portfolio. Any advice on how to clear this would be appreciated.
Timeline:
Morning before paying- I checked all credit reports. No Portfolio Recovery on any of them.
Noon the same day- Paid Portfolio in full.
Two days later- They report it to Experian as a collection account.

[racer-x]

Man o man...You're not getting any replies because the damage has already been done and there's probably not a lot that you can do.

How old is the negative....seems like it's rather recent?

Continue to GW, other than that, the CA has no obligation to remove it from the report.  If it's only EX, my advice would be to focus on lenders/creditors who pull TU or EQ exclusively when you're looking to extend your credit profile.

Lessson here is, never ever never ever never ever pay a collection first, in hopes of having it removed after it's paid.  You have no leverage now to negotiate a PFD.

If it wasn't reporting before you paid it,  I may have just let it go or sent the money to Cap One.  Cap One may have withdrawn the acct from the CA if they had recieved the payment...idk.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I contacted Capital One to pay them and they said I would have to pay Portfolio. The debt was from 2011 and Portfolio bought it in November of 2014. I just feel it was shady to report it after. They gained all the benefit out of it. I've yet to speak with someone there who has a positive demeanor. Would reporting it to bbb do any justice?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I contacted Capital One to pay them and they said I would have to pay Portfolio. The debt was from 2011 and Portfolio bought it in November of 2014. I just feel it was shady to report it after. They gained all the benefit out of it. I've yet to speak with someone there who has a positive demeanor. Would reporting it to bbb do any justice?

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Don't know what state you are in, but from working in collections I know accounts aren't typically reported to the CRAs right away after purchase.  Typically after purchase, demand/first notice letters have to be sent to consumer and then there has to be time given if consumer requests validation or disputes the account before it gets reported.  Not taking up for them in any way, but it could be they were going to start reporting it soon whether you paid it or not but by paying them you triggered something in their system to update to the CRAs. BBB probably won't do anything.  At this point, it's probably better to try GW letters to Portfolio.

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I contacted Capital One to pay them and they said I would have to pay Portfolio. The debt was from 2011 and Portfolio bought it in November of 2014. I just feel it was shady to report it after. They gained all the benefit out of it. I've yet to speak with someone there who has a positive demeanor. Would reporting it to bbb do any justice?

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Unless you had an agreement not to report in exchange for payment (verbal or written) the BBB isnt going to get you anywhere. GW letters are you only hope and its going to take time these are 2 of the worst to have to deal with. Good luck   Here is the GW Letter thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Stories/td-p/1573680

[Anonymous]

I'll keep trying. Thank you!