Collection Agency questions

[Anonymous]

I thought I posted this on here before but I can not find it.

My questions:

1.   Can collection agencies list theirselves in the accounts section of your credit report?

2.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as open accounts?

3.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as 120 days late (deemed already answered this one in another post)

I want to send a letter to these companies and tell them they are not reporting correctly.  Is there a form letter?  or do I have to just make one up. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I thought I posted this on here before but I can not find it.

My questions:

1.   Can collection agencies list theirselves in the accounts section of your credit report?

If you are referring to them listing themselves as the OC, no they can not.  There is always an OC

whether the bought the account or not. I see this mostly from factoring companies who try to get around the FDCPA by saying they are not a collection agency.

2.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as open accounts?

No, they can not.  Some factoring companies try get around this because they think they are not CA.  But they are.

3.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as 120 days late (deemed already answered this one in another post)

Again, no they can not.

I want to send a letter to these companies and tell them they are not reporting correctly.  Is there a form letter?  or do I have to just make one up. 

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[Anonymous]

 

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@Anonymous wrote:

I thought I posted this on here before but I can not find it.

My questions:

1.   Can collection agencies list theirselves in the accounts section of your credit report?

2.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as open accounts?

3.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as 120 days late (deemed already answered this one in another post)

I want to send a letter to these companies and tell them they are not reporting correctly.  Is there a form letter?  or do I have to just make one up. 

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Harpop,

what kind of letter do you want to send? I might have a sample letter to share.

in those case, IMHO, the best way to go is to complain with AGs, BBB and FTC for FCRA violations, and at the same time send ITS letters to the CAs and sue them in Small Claims.

The combined pressure of the suit(s) and the AGs helps resolving the matter pretty quikly (3-8 weeks).

[ScoreBooster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I thought I posted this on here before but I can not find it.

My questions:

1.   Can collection agencies list theirselves in the accounts section of your credit report?

2.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as open accounts?

3.   Can collection agencies list theirselves as 120 days late (deemed already answered this one in another post)

I want to send a letter to these companies and tell them they are not reporting correctly.  Is there a form letter?  or do I have to just make one up. 

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Ha, let me guess, you're talking about "LVNV Funding", right?

I don't what's on their mind but I'm sure they never heard of the FCRA...

As deemed suggest before, just tell them they should correct the reporting (without any details) within 7 days. If you owe them less than $2K, do the following: If they don't react, send them an additional letter saying that unless they remove the entire account from your CR, you will sue them for every single violation under the FCRA for up to $1,000 since they are now willfully violating FCRA. You can also mention BBB etc.

All  letters CMRR, of course..

[Anonymous]

deemed I just want them gone.  Two has not validated to me but has to CRA.  The third is mine.  But they are reporting open and 120 days.  I have 4 accounts reporting open 120 days late.  This has got to be killing me score.

I will send the letter to have them correct my report or remove the items. 

[Anonymous]

I hear you.

complaints with the BBB, AGs and FTC agencies are the best tool - they don't believe your ITS letters until they see the service of an actual suit.

I just got a call from the lawyer of one of them, today, the day they got served - they responded to the NY AG, but silence with me for about 6 months... 

[RobertEG]

I dont want to open controversy, or create a dispute with any further posters.But I am not sure that reporting provisions support this conclusion.

Page 2-6 of the Credit Reporting Resource Guide, which is the manual of accepted reporting by creditors to a CRA, permits a creditor, including a CA, to report updates to Account Status (Filed code 17a), and FCRA Compliance Date/DOFD (field 25), and Compliance Condition Code (Field 20)

I dont know if the CRAs maintain the reporting of this date separarate from a prior OC reporting. but the reporting manual clearly designates these as fieds that, once updated, delete prior data, and dont store prior data under these codes.

Just my observatiion.

[ScoreBooster]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I dont want to open controversy, or create a dispute with any further posters.But I am not sure that reporting provisions support this conclusion.

Page 2-6 of the Credit Reporting Resource Guide, which is the manual of accepted reporting by creditors to a CRA, permits a creditor, including a CA, to report updates to Account Status (Filed code 17a), and FCRA Compliance Date/DOFD (field 25), and Compliance Condition Code (Field 20)

I dont know if the CRAs maintain the reporting of this date separarate from a prior OC reporting. but the reporting manual clearly designates these as fieds that, once updated, delete prior data, and dont store prior data under these codes.

Just my observatiion.

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Here's my POV:

I'm still having a problem with the payment-status. Before ANY creditor has the right to report a late-payment on an account that is reported with a payment-history, they would have to obtain the account at least for the time they consider it to be late - when they purchased a debt last month and start reporting with 120 days late the first month, when was I - let's say - 30 days late on said account? Right, even BEFORE they obtained it. Doesn't make sense to me.

I also don't see any legal basis that a CA can turn a CO-account into an installment-account. I never made any payments or even more important, payment-arrangements with them. They WISH they would get installments, but that wish is insufficient to structure a new account. Once again, an installment-account where you're already late before it was even established doesn't seem right to me.

Sure, they can (and have to) report DOFD. They can also make UPDATES to the account-status. However, there is a difference between REPORTING an update and simply updating an account to the terms they prefer. And IMO, compliance condition with a CA only leaves 2 conditions: Paid and unpaid. Unless you have an agreement to pay a CA in installments, there is NOTHING in between. There is no such thing as a "current" collection. If an account is current, it wouldn't be with the CA in the first place. And since there is no "current" status, there is no "30, 60, 90 or 120 day late"-status either.

Reporting the payment-history is the OCs job - no the CAs...

Message Edited by ScoreBooster on 01-06-2009 01:07 AM

[RobertEG]

ScoreBooster, I dont dispute for a moment the logic of your argument.

But I see no provisions in the CRA reporting manual that prevents a CA from reporting, and updating, basic data that was previously recorded by an OC   It is simply not there.

[ScoreBooster]

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@RobertEG wrote:

ScoreBooster, I dont dispute for a moment the logic of your argument.

But I see no provisions in the CRA reporting manual that prevents a CA from reporting, and updating, basic data that was previously recorded by an OC   It is simply not there.

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That's interesting. You are saying "basic data that was previously recorded by an OC". I think there might also be a question about when an OC and a CA are reporting specific information.

I guess it's safe to say that the usual way of reporting - let's say a CC - is that the OC reports until charge-off and the CA shows up for the first time. Now when the CA reports 120 days late - let's say - in their 6th month of reporting (like LVNV does on my CR), is that really information PREVIOUSLY reported by the OC? When looking at the combination of these two sources of information (OC and CA), I was late for 120 multiple times: Before charge-off by the OC and now constantly every month after charge-off, now almost 2 years after the OC reported me 120 days late. Strange...

Another FCRA-regulation that would have to be considered when a CA is reporting as an installment-account is that a derogatory account can only be reported once. CA and OC can both report the same time - but what if you can't tell tell that it's a collection-account? You actually have 2 OCs on your file.

Further, according to FCRA, a creditor is required to report the correct "Type of Account". I think a CA iis supposed to report as "Collection" rather than "Installment" or "Factoring Account".

So yes, they can certainly use and rely on information previously reported by the OC - but they have to adjust their reporting-style that it's still accurate. They simply ARE a CA and not the OC. The account-type "collection" would be useless because NO account starts as a collection. There is always an OC.