Collection Accounts

[Anonymous]

This was asked in another thread but there were no clear answers.

We have all read that a CA is a CA, and if it is old, and you pay, it just updates the DOLA, and it may lower your score.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them?

Has anyone had the DOLA updated due to a DV, and it still lower their score?  If you pay after your DV, does it lower your score further?

[Anonymous]

This is very common.  A DV can usually result in an update to your CR because the CA is obligated by law to update the comments "Disputed by consumer - reported by subscriber." 

Anytime ANYTHING is reported, it updates the most recent reported date, which FICO thinks makes the collection more recent.

Then if you later pay the CA, they must update with the paid status and thus a more recent date once again.

So, unless you can PFD, DV or PAID will usually result in an updated LAST REPORTED and STATUS DATE which can have a FICO depression factor.

So, the moral of the story:  Get  a PFD if you can.  Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie if you are not able to make a PFD offer, which has no guarantee of acceptance.

[Anonymous]

So because of the update to 5/2009, do you think I can pay them without the PFD (they are ignoring my requests) without so much of a score drop?

[RobertEG]

I am not quite sure of the FICO impact of all of this.

A DV letter is a private letter under the FDCPA between you, tthe consumer, and the CA.  The CRA is not even involved.  It is not a date of any last activity on the CA account on your part.

A DV letter is never grounds for updating your CA account status.  There are only three account status' that a CA can report:  in collection, collection paid, or collection deleted.

All the CA could possibly do is report a special comment under field code 19, and to my knowledge, FICO does not even consider that in scoring.

Paying after a DV wont lower your score.  It will simply result in your CA account status as being updated to paid, thus forclosing any future legal action on the part of the CA.

The relevant FICO date for scoring of a CA is the DOFD on the OC account which led to the collection, not any DOLA activity thereafter.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I am not quite sure of the FICO impact of all of this.

A DV letter is a private letter under the FDCPA between you, tthe consumer, and the CA.  The CRA is not even involved.  It is not a date of any last activity on the CA account on your part.

A DV letter is never grounds for updating your CA account status.  There are only three account status' that a CA can report:  in collection, collection paid, or collection deleted.

All the CA could possibly do is report a special comment under field code 19, and to my knowledge, FICO does not even consider that in scoring.

Paying after a DV wont lower your score.  It will simply result in your CA account status as being updated to paid, thus forclosing any future legal action on the part of the CA.

The relevant FICO date for scoring of a CA is the DOFD on the OC account which led to the collection, not any DOLA activity thereafter.

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I am confused.  When I sent the DV, the CA did update my report to say I disputed the information.

But, if they update my report to paid, wont this update the last activity date, thus making it seem more "current"?

The information you just provided is different from what I have been reading in the other threads.

Im all confused now!