Question about reporting and possible PFD

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a long time and slowly rebuilding my credit. Finally moved up to about 650 from low 500's.
I had a charge off with Chase for $493 back in 2012.
In 2015 I decided to try and pay the debt. I contacted Chase who told me it was sold to MRS Associates for collections, and tat they could not take the payment. I scheduled a payment plan with MRS and made 2 payments for $70 each. After the second payment, they still refused to email or mail me a receipt and stated hey would only provide a receipt once paid in full. Well, I made probably a dumb decision and decided without a receipt I would not give them any more money. I pulled my free report last night and saw that the account was reported as Charge Off every month from the first charge off in 2012 all the way up until June of 2016. The balance dropped twice where I made my payments, but still showed as a Chare Off as I'd expect it to.
My question is this, I have drafted a PFD letter to send to MRS, however I realized last night MRS has never shown up on my report. It still shows the Chase account, and it is Chase that is reporting the Chare Off through 2016, as well as the two payments I have made.
If Chase no longer owned the debt after they sold it to MRS, how can they still be reporting on it as well as reporting the two payments I made?
Should I dispute the reporting because Chase does not own the debt, and also, is it worth my time to send MRS the PFD letter if they aren't the ones reporting anyway?
I'd love some advice

[rmduhon]

If Chase sold the debt then they are required to update the account to a zero balance.

[Anonymous]

Okay. So I'm confused. the Chase Credit line shows all of the charge offs, and also shows the balance owed going down in the 2 months in 2015 that I made the payments. However I did. It make the payments to Chase, I made them to MRS Associates. Who is a collection agency. So either MRS updated the balance owed through Chase somehow, or Chase lied and MRS is in house. However a search for MRS shows they are a collection agency out of NJ.
So should I dispute the credit line stating that the balance should be zero because Chase sold the account to a collection agency, even though the collection agency MRS has never themselves shown up on my report by name?

[medicgrrl]

If Chase is refusing the PFD and MRS is not reporting then I would just pay it off.  Chase is going to affect your utilization until it is paid.  Also, if you poke the bear you may end up with a Chase account showing $0 and a CA being reported.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I don't mind just paying it. Just thought it was strange that I paid a collection agency, yet they never showed up, but somehow relayed the information to Chase in order to have it update. It's $300 and I can easily pay it now in my current financial situation and maturity. This was all a result of being young and dumb.
Last question, I had avoided paying it off because I had seen so many posts and advice stating sometimes you're better off not paying it once it hits a certain age. I'm now 4 years from the original charge off, and they haven't reported anything to the credit bureaus in almost a year. If I call them and just pay it, is it somehow going to hurt my credit when they again update the charge off in paid status? I know that paying in and of itself will do nothing to boost my credit other than help in underwriting of a loan in the future.
TL;DR I don't mind paying as long as it's not going to hurt my credit more than it is going to help me at this point as it hasn't been reported in a year and drops off in 3.

[RobertEG]

A creditor can, if they assign collection authority to a debt collector to collect on the debt, still be the owner, and yet decline to take payment.

One reason they hire a debt collector is to remove dealing with the consumer.

My speculation, if the creditor is still reporting a balance and has been informed by the debt collector of the payments made, is that the debt collector does NOT own the debt, but rather only is an assigned debt collector.

You can make a pay for NOT reporting offer to the debt collector, thus ensuring that they will not report their collection.

[Anonymous]

This makes sense. Thank you for the reply.
Last question, let's say I make a Pay for NOT reporting offer, and they accept it, will my credit report not show that the balance is now $0 because they aren't going to report it? I'm jut confused on how I can pay them, and have them report it as paid, but not have it ping my credit as a refreshed paid charge off