Merrick Bank Re-reporting a balance.

[Anonymous]

In February I settled the account in full. In March they reported the balance as 0. Just recently they reported it as 908 again. The 26 pt gain from paying it has disappeared now. When I cam Merrick Bank they said the account was sent to a collections agency and they cannot do anything. They transfer me to CA #1 who said they no longer have authority over the account and transferred me to CA #2 who I paid the balance with before. CA #2 tells me that the account with them is closed and sent back to the creditor. They also point out that they don't do reporting and that it's Merrick Bank doing the reporting. Merrick bank still said they don't have access to the account.

my question is this. Should I file a dispute with the bureau (they knew it was paid as they reported it paid), with the BBB, or a complaint with the CFPB? When I made a BBB complaint with a different company, they deleted the tradelines. 

[FireMedic1]

How did a CA get involved if you paid MB off? If you have proof of payment to MB. You can dispute it claiming you PIF Merrick, and there should be no CA's associated with the account. Unless I read your post incorrectly. You had a charge off from Merrick and they took payment?

[Anonymous]

The CA was contracted to pursue the collection on behalf of MB. This being contrasted with CA buying the debt. MB maintained ownership of the debt. 

sorry, CA meaning collections agency, not collections account. There is no collections account with the Credit bureau. The agency wasn't reporting, the creditor is. They reported zero balance and now report the original $908 balance. 
to my knowledge, disputing the current balance doesn't prevent them from reporting the wrong balance again. I am mostly curious if one of the three options be a greater motivator than the rest to get them to permanently change the balance (or even delete the account outright). I suspect their system wasn't updated, but MB just pawns me off to the collection agency #1 who pawns me off again to #2, who says they don't have the power to do anything since they aren't reporting.

[FireMedic1]

See what pops on next months update. It may go back to $0. For now let it ride and dont poke the bear just yet. If you have copies of your reports. Keep them. One showing the $0 balance after being paid. And a copy of them putting back the false balance. Then you'll have some ammunition to send to the CFPB. Sit tight for a few weeks for now. Things do bounce around with CRA's.

[bass_playr]

Respectfully, I disagree.

The OC is the only entity reporting, and already reported it as paid off, with a 0 balance.  This has nothing to do with the fact that it had been sent to a CA, as the CA apparently already had it on behalf of the OC when it was paid.  OC sent it to CA to collect, OP paid the CA and the balance owed went to 0.  At this point, anything other than 0 balance is an error and Merrick has a legal responsibility to report only correct info.  The fact that they already reported it correctly, then changed it back to showing a balance, is their fault entirely.  

If you wait, they might change it.  But why?  This isn't a case of there being a delay in the reporting being corrected--they already corrected it, then made an error again.  At the very least, I would submit a dispute in writing to the credit bureaus, showing receipt that you paid it.  I would also include the correct reporting, showing the zero balance, with your dispute.  

I might hold off on the CFPB and BBB complaints to give them a chance to fix it with this.  But here's the thing--most creditors will not pay much attention to what they are reporting unless it could cost them money to pay attention.  They already got paid, so they are likely to not care as much about your credit reporting.  A dispute gives them the chance to correct the error without escalating the issue any further.  

The only other thing about a CFPB or BBB complaint is that it might light a fire under them to fix it and fix it now.  Of course, this is just speculation but I would not wait personally until next month.  They got paid, so they have little reason to be concerned with double-checking yor credit report unless they are given a reason to---hence, your dispute.

Also, keep this in mind, you already were told over the phone by Merrick that there's nothing they can do, which is an outright lie.  One, their timing is false because this was already sent to a CA.  Their excuse that it had been sent to a CA is both dismissive and simply false, because the CA was not the party that reported.  So, a rep from that company has already shown you that they do not have much interest in looking into the matter.  A CRA dispute is the first step before FCRA legal action could be taken---so it gives them a moment to pause and check it out before they end up having to spend money on a civil suit against them.  

[FireMedic1]

Long story short @bass_playr . Appears MB sent the balance to the CA. And zero'ed it out. But then recalled it from the CA and placed a balance back on the OP's reports. OP paid it to $0. CA never posted it on the reports because they never actually owned it. Now MB is totally in the wrong. But things do happen with CRA's and whats reported to them. They can mess up boiling water. I'll ping @Remedios  for a better explanation.

@Anonymousat anytime did MB list the account as charged off. That will help tremendously.

[bass_playr]

Firemedic1--

That's not what the OP said took place.

OP said that MB was reporting the balance owed.  They did not zero it out until OP paid it....then they put the balance back on a month later.  So according to OP's post, MB never zeroed the account because it was sent to collections---they zeroed it only when it got paid.  Look at OP's post again:

"In February I settled the account in full. In March they reported the balance as 0. Just recently they reported it as 908 again. The 26 pt gain from paying it has disappeared now. When I cam Merrick Bank they said the account was sent to a collections agency and they cannot do anything. They transfer me to CA #1 who said they no longer have authority over the account and transferred me to CA #2 who I paid the balance with before. CA #2 tells me that the account with them is closed and sent back to the creditor. They also point out that they don't do reporting and that it's Merrick Bank doing the reporting. Merrick bank still said they don't have access to the account."

They sent it to apparently two different CAs.  OP actually paid the second CA that the debt was assigned to.  Upon notification that it was paid, MB reported it as paid with a zero balance.  OP even tells us this in the last part of that post:

"my question is this. Should I file a dispute with the bureau (they knew it was paid as they reported it paid), with the BBB, or a complaint with the CFPB? When I made a BBB complaint with a different company, they deleted the tradelines. "

He clearly tells us that MB knew it was paid because they reported it as paid.  This is not a case of them pulling the reporting because they sent it to a CA---it is clear all around that the CA even knew it had no involvement in any credit reporting.  All the CA did was collect the balance and report it as paid back to MB. 

I agree with you that MB is absolutely at fault--but the nature of their fault is clear from the OP's post, where he states that they knew it was paid and reported it as paid, only to change it back to claiming he owed the balance still.  MB is further at fault because when OP brought the error to their attention, their rep said they could not do anything to fix what is clearly a very obvious error.

Appreciate your effort to ping others who can explain it better but it's not necessary.  The key is in what the OP said in that post.  Thanks.