Can a collection Agency report as a charge off

[gwennieb]

I have recently sent validation letters out to accounts reporting on my credit report by ca not the original creditor. I noticed today that all of the accounts have been changed to collection/chargeoff. Can they do this ?

[Medic981]

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@gwennieb wrote:
I have recently sent validation letters out to accounts reporting on my credit report by ca not the original creditor. I noticed today that all of the accounts have been changed to collection/chargeoff. Can they do this ?

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If I understand correctly, the CA can report a collection account. I think only the OC can report a chargeoff. I am sure someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

[gwennieb]

Thank you for your reply that’s what I thought just don’t know what my next step should be.

[Medic981]

As I understand it, only a creditor can chargeoff an account. I think you can dispute it, but the CA will then recode it to be a collection account. Again, someone in the forum with more experience and knowledge will correct me if I am wrong.

[gwennieb]

This is so frustrating none of them even sent me any validation.

[AndySoCal]

Call the original creditor and get the documents needs for the debt validation. Also where did you get the credit report that shows collection/ Charge off status for collection account from collection agency?

[gwennieb]

I seen them on my TU report thru creditwise 

[gwennieb]

The original creditor is not even reporting

[AndySoCal]

There is a field that is a part of credit data call manner of payment. The same values are also used in the payment history field. The values range from 1 to 9.  1= current 2 thru 5 are late payments ranging from 30 to 120 or more late, 7 - bankruptcy, 8 - reposession /foreclosure, 9 - collection/ chargeoff. Depending on who is formating the credit report how these values are represented.  Trans Union may be giving you  the text reason of what the 9 means. I would doubt a collection agency would charge off a debt that said it could happen.  If you know who the original creditor is you can try contacting them to get the information you need. Since the original creditor has stopped reporting I wonder if the account is beyond the statue of limitations.

[RobertEG]

A collection is, by definition, an attempt to collect a delinquent debt.

The CRAs provide codes as part of regular reporting by either creditors or debt collectors for reporting the currrent delinquency status, such as 30-late, 60-late, 90-late, 120-late, 150-late, 180+ late, or CO.

Debt collectors dont report payment history profile information, but they do report current status.

Thus, if the issue is the reporting of a current status as being a CO, yes, a debt collector can report that as a delinquency status.