CA reporting question

[Anonymous]

Can a collection agency report to the credit bureaus if they do not own they account but simply have a contract to collect on behalf of the original creditor? 

I have a collection reporting by IQ Data. They report to all three bureas but when I spoke with the original creditor about if they sold the account to the agency or not the original creditor said they did not sell it but that the agency is "collecting the debt on their behalf". I was reading through some posts and saw someone mention a CA wasnt reporting because they didnt buy the account from the OC so they dont own it. I was wondering if that means if a CA doesnt own the account does it then mean they cant report it?

Thanks for your help!

[gdale6]

Yes they can report it along with the OC if they choose.

[Anonymous]

okay thank you for that info. 

[RobertEG]

All that is required in order for a debt collector to report their collection is that they had/have legitimate collection authority.

Collection authority can be obtained either by assignment from the current owner to attempt collection on their behalf, or by their actual ownership of the debt.

As an aside, if a debt collector has their collection authority terminated, eithher by termination of their assignment of collection authority, or if they own the debt, by thier sale of the debt, if the debt remains unpaid, then CRA reporting policy instructs them to delete their reported collection.

That CRA poliicy is not a requiremnt of statutue or regulation, but rather is an internal CRA policy instended to prevent the subsequent simultaneous inclusion of two collections on the same debt.