Why would a Verizon Cell phone account be listed as Revolving?!

[Anonymous]

As the case with many of us on the board, i'm currently in the process of improving my credit.  My 1st step has been lowering the balance of my revolving accounts i.e credit cards.  For some reason though, I have a Verizon Wireless revolving account with a balance of  $993 from 2011.  My question is why would a cellular account be listed as a revolving account? The only other revolving accounts I have are 3 "good standing" credit card accounts.

[Pway]

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@Anonymous wrote:

As the case with many of us on the board, i'm currently in the process of improving my credit.  My 1st step has been lowering the balance of my revolving accounts i.e credit cards.  For some reason though, I have a Verizon Wireless revolving account with a balance of  $993 from 2011.  My question is why would a cellular account be listed as a revolving account? The only other revolving accounts I have are 3 "good standing" credit card accounts.  That is really weird.  I have had my verizon account since that time as well and there is nothing on my credit report from them.  I have also had things charged to my bill and paid them the next month.  I would call and see what this is about. 

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[RobertEG]

If payment is due when billed, it is not revolving credit.

Do you have some agreed credit limit on the account that permits you to carry over a balance to the next billing peirod?

[cartwrna]

My Verizon collection also reports under revolving. I also wondered if it helps/hurts my score more being under revolving instead of just the collection section. When I pull my reports though EQ says in collection free due to it being my only bad account though.

[Anonymous]

Hey guys thanks for the fast responses!!

"Do you have some agreed credit limit on the account that permits you to carry over a balance to the next billing peirod?"

Nope, it was a cell phone account I put in my name for my brother  and I.  We fell behind on it.

"My Verizon collection also reports under revolving. I also wondered if it helps/hurts my score more being under revolving instead of just the collection section. When I pull my reports though EQ says in collection free due to it being my only bad account though."

@cartwrna Thanks for this question.  I was wondering this is exact thing. 

A little more information.  I called Verizon about this, and they forwarded me to a collection company.  I have not contacted the collection company.  Do you folks thinks this is just a mistake in the reporting?

[cartwrna]

What collection company is yours with? Mine is with Diversified Consultants I believe.

[Anonymous]

Verizon doesn't report your account until something bad happens (lates, a collection, etc). When it does report it usually tends to fall either into the revolving or 'other' section. Your account type should probably read "Open". If you're not seeing anything showing up in the 'collections' section this is good- it means the collection agency Verizon passed the account/chargeoff to isn't reporting (yet). The debt remains, until you pay it off. Most likely Verizon won't withdraw the debt from the collection agency, and you pay them. Ideally I'd do this before they report to the agencies, which will save one more negative ding. Once paid, the account will likely update to "account status- paid collection" and still remain on your report for up to 7 years from the date of original deliquency (when the account first became late). Gotta love Verizon, they won't ever report the positive payment history to help a file, though the moment something goes bad, there's the report, and they are very resistant to pay for deletions or goodwill letters. The account being listed under 'revolving' shouldn't be helping or harming your account in any way, just like the majority of standard utility bills don't get reported monthly (gas, electric, etc) neither do cellular, so a collection tends to get lumped into revolving with the account type being further stipulated in the "Account Type" area.