Charge Off account showing balance after being sold to Collection Agency

[Anonymous]

Hoping all you guys/gals can help me with a few questions.

I have a Charge off account showing on Transunion for a Utility Company for a balance $494. The Date of last payment was 9/16/2011. The only "updated" date is 8/21/2014. Closed date shows 4/2014. I also recieved a letter from a CA (Convergent) for the same account in May 2019 that stated that due to SOL in my state and how "OLD" the debt is, that neither they not the OC could sue or report to the CRA's. The letter was for a settlement offer.  TU shows the debt under the original creditor.

First, if the OC sold the debt to a CA, should the balance still show as $494?  Isn't it a violation of FDCA if they report a balance other than $0  after selling to another agency? The CA has not reported anything to any of the CRA's, and apparently won't since they state that in the letter.

Second, since the Date of Last Payment shows 2011, should this have not already fallen off my report? TU shows a dropoff date of 3/2021. I thought that dropoff dates started at the last payment date.

Is it possible to maybe dispute the balance since it is still showing $494, (have OC report $0 balance) or maybe request removal by TU since the DOLP shows 2011? Is this maybe why the CA say it's too old to report?

This is confusing to me. 

Thank you all for any help with this. 

EDIT - I found the CA letter in my junk mail, and the settlement offer date has already passed. I don't want to reset any "clocks" by making any sort of payment until I know what is going on first. Thanks. 

[simplegirl]

Hello there, If you defaulted in 2011 then yes the account show have fallen off by now but it looks like your report is saying you DOFD is in 2014 not 2011. As far as OC reporting a balance that collection agency could just be collecting on the OC behalf which means they did not fully sell the collection so they can still report a balance.

[Remedios]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hoping all you guys/gals can help me with a few questions.

I have a Charge off account showing on Transunion for a Utility Company for a balance $494. The Date of last payment was 9/16/2011. The only "updated" date is 8/21/2014. Closed date shows 4/2014. I also recieved a letter from a CA (Convergent) for the same account in May 2019 that stated that due to SOL in my state and how "OLD" the debt is, that neither they not the OC could sue or report to the CRA's. The letter was for a settlement offer.  TU shows the debt under the original creditor.

First, if the OC sold the debt to a CA, should the balance still show as $494?  Isn't it a violation of FDCA if they report a balance other than $0  after selling to another agency? The CA has not reported anything to any of the CRA's, and apparently won't since they state that in the letter.

Second, since the Date of Last Payment shows 2011, should this have not already fallen off my report? TU shows a dropoff date of 3/2021. I thought that dropoff dates started at the last payment date.

Is it possible to maybe dispute the balance since it is still showing $494, (have OC report $0 balance) or maybe request removal by TU since the DOLP shows 2011? Is this maybe why the CA say it's too old to report?

This is confusing to me. 

Thank you all for any help with this. 

EDIT - I found the CA letter in my junk mail, and the settlement offer date has already passed. I don't want to reset any "clocks" by making any sort of payment until I know what is going on first. Thanks. 

---

You need to grab a copy of free annual credit report and see if it lists date of first delinquency (DOFD). Last payment date is not used for determining when to remove an account. 

Based on what you put in OP, it appears they are using 2014 as a year DOFD happened and removal date is 7 years from that date. 

If you can get a copy of free annual credit report that shows delinquency actually happened much earlier, you can use it to dispute and get it removed from your CR. 

Good luck! 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

It's 7 yrs 6 mos from date of first default before it has to be legally removed which is why it has a scheduled fall off date of 3/2020. As for the balance showing, if the collection company is just collecting on the the OC's behalf, it would still show the balance. If it was outright sold, then it should show $0. You can roll the dice on a possible EE by disputing the amount and if the OC decides not to update the account, BUT, if they do update, you'll take a score hit as it will show new negative activity on your reports. I recommend waiting for the EE availability dates and just request it from the bureaus then. Depending on which bureau, it'll be 1, 3, or 6 months before March.

EDIT: just saw the drop off is actually 3/2021. You need to find out DoFD and count from there. 

[vntrsc]

If the account was sold, the OC’s entry should show “sold” or “transferred” somewhere in the entry.

[RobertEG]

Credit reporting is covered under the FCRA (not the FDCPA), and requires that a party who has reported information to a CRA must "promptly" update that reporting as necessary to maintain its current accuracy.  See FCRA 623(a)(2).

Thus, the orifinal creditor was required, after their sale of the debt, to promptly unpdate the current balance to $0, since no debt is thereafter owed to them.

You can dispute the accuracy of the reported current balance with the CRA.

However, lack of prompt updating does not subject the furnisher to any liability under the FCRA, as a consumer is required to first dispute the accuracy and obtain the results of a dispute before they obtain any right to pursue civil action based on accuracy of credit reporting.  See FCRA 623(C).

The separate issue of lack of exclusion of reporting of a charge-off  would be pursued by filing a dispute of the accuracy of the reported DOFD if the DOFD of record is not accurate.

If you have documentation showing that the account became delinquent more than 7 years plus 180 days ago, and thereafter has remainded delinqent from that time, then you have support for a dispute of any reported DOFD that is less than 7 years plus 180 days ago.

If that is the situation, then a dispute on that basis would additionally require removal of the entire account, making a dispute of the accuracy of the reported current balance moot.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the responses. I guess the CA is working with the OC on the debt.
Based on that I will probably just wait to EE when the time comes or see if another settlement is offered and pay it out. Just don't want to "poke the bear" so to speak and take a score hit.
You all are awesome. Thanks for making some sense of this.