Paid Collection = "Failed to Pay"?

[Anonymous]

Hey there, guess I'll start from the beginning. Earlier this year, I went late on some of my student loans, but the accounts were current as of April 2018. Needless to say, in the few months they were late, my (good) credit was devastated. Nevertheless, in the time since, my credit has gone back up significantly... but I noticed something strange. My Experian score, both Fico and Vantagescore, was consistanly 30-50 points lower than my Transunion and Equifax scores. I couldn't figure out what was wrong... until I looked at data regarding my last late payment. Both TU and EQ report my last payment as being 7 months ago, which makes sense. But EX reported it as being 5 months ago. The student loans accounted for the late payment 7 months ago, but I didn't have any late payments 5 months ago, so I struggled to figure out how that was the case. I thought maybe they just had wrong information on the student loan issue, but that apparently wasn't the case....

In June, I received a letter saying that I was overpaid by the US gov't (for my job) and owed a certain amount. At that point, the account was already in collections (long story - but TL;DR, I wasn't at fault for that) - but I paid the account in full in early June. Both EQ and TU list this account as being closed and paid in full, but EX lists it as "Failed to Pay," even though it is listed as "paid" in the details. It doesn't provide many details, such as the history of the debt and such - it just has a single "FP" (Failed to Pay) over the month of June, which is, ironically, when I paid it.

So, a paid collection is being listed as "failed to pay" by Experian - and that "Failed to Pay" is considered a late payment - hence why EX says my last late payment was 5 months ago. Is that supposed to be the case? I figure no, since the other to CRAs have the same information but do not consider it to be a late payment, nor do they list it as "failed to pay." Furthermore, I also have access to my Fico9 score from EX, which does not weigh paid collections as much, if at all - and that score is very much on par with the other agencies. So I am fairly certain that this is the root of the problem. Before I give EX a call, though, I wanted to know if anyone had anymore details on this - particularly if this incorrect or not.

Thanks in advance!
SJ

[RobertEG]

FP (failed to pay) is not a code that is reported to or stored in your credit file.  It is a designation used by the party who produces your commercial credit report to summarize its intepretation of your file.

First, debt collectors report collections, and monthly delinquencies do not occur under a collection.  They occur under accounts with the original creditor.   Payment history profiles of prior delinquencies are only shown under OC accounts, not collections.

Collections only show the current status of either Open with the current balance remaining under collection, or Closed, with a $0 balance under collection.  

On the date that a collection is reported as paid, its current status is updated from a prior status of unpaid, and thus the debt is still delinquent, to paid, or paid, settled for less, both of which are no longer delinquency status on the paid debt.

The final update of the collection to paid or settled fixes the final period of the total time since initial delinquency with the creditor.

It can have increased negative scoring impact in that final reporting, as the reported period of total delinquency is updated.

However, it is not a reported, additional late payment.  It is an update that fixes the net period of delinquency on the entire debt.

[kiea]

Did you ever get this solved?  I'm having the same issue now & Experian refuses to fix it.  I disputed the account 4 times and it keeps updating within the same month of the dispute.  I'm going to try to talk to a supervisor at Experian.  I haven't been late on anything in almost 2 years but my report is reading as last late was in January.