Reporting by tape?!?!?

[Anonymous]

I just called my credit union to see when they update their information with the credit bureaus and was told that they report at the end of the month by tape, at least what I thought she said.  What does they mean?  I thought they all have some software which would just upload it and instantly update the bureaus information. 

Thanks in advance for any insight!!

[Anonymous]

She said tape.  A lot of companies update with the CRAs this way.

Not sure how the tape gets to the CRA but it is common procedure.

[llecs]

To add, and I'm only guessing, but I'd assume that with each update, the OC/CA pays a fee to use their subscription. I'd suspect they do it in batches to not only avoid fees vs. doing it daily but also to minimize the amount of work within the day-to-day routine.

[Anonymous]

It's a term used in health insurance, too.  The insurance company sends a tape to the medical groups every month to show who is assigned to that group; a large employer sends the insurance company a tape each month to show who is still employed and eligible for coverage.  It's still electronic, done through the system.  It's just an industry term.  I don't know why it's called a tape.  Once the tape is received on the other end, it has to be processed before their system is updated.  It's probably all automated, but it's not real time.  It's just a way of batching.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all of those who replied!!!

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It's a term used in health insurance, too.  The insurance company sends a tape to the medical groups every month to show who is assigned to that group; a large employer sends the insurance company a tape each month to show who is still employed and eligible for coverage.  It's still electronic, done through the system.  It's just an industry term.  I don't know why it's called a tape.  Once the tape is received on the other end, it has to be processed before their system is updated.  It's probably all automated, but it's not real time.  It's just a way of batching.

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Nowadays most B2B transactions are done over EDI networks and/or the Internet, but once upon a time (back when I myself was writing Fortran code on punch card equipment) such things were done by physically shipping a magnetic tape.  Oddly enough in my field today (pharmaceutical research) the data volumes are so huge that Internet transfers can take a long time so we sometimes physically ship a disk.