Not sure if this is an issue...

[Anonymous]

...but I'm guessing it is...

I pulled my credit reports late last week, and noticed something of an issue that I'm not sure of the best way to proceed on. I have a charge-off in Dec of 2007 of a little more than $1000 on a Credit One card; the TU report indicates that it was sold to a CA , who in turn assigned it to a local law firm for collection. I PIF in February of 2008, and have a letter from the law firm stating this. The issue is that Credit One will not update the report to indicate that the charge-off was PIF, as they sold the account; the problem is I also have no indication on my credit report from either the CA or the law firm indicating that this has been paid(my assumption is that the CA would be the one to do this). My fear is that any updates now are going to show as recent derogatory activity, and put a ding in my score. Should the CA have updated this? And would my best course of action now be to simply explain this to future potential creditors?

Long time lurker, first time poster; if anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer...

[Anonymous]

When an OC sells a debt to a CA, it should be reporting a balance of $0.  That is usually how we figure out that a debt has been sold, as opposed to just assigned.  The OC can still show the high balance or the delinquent balance, but it should show a current balance of $0.

Did you pay the law firm prior to a judgment being entered??

All of the places on this credit report where this is reported should show a $0 if it is PIF.  I don't think a recent payment notation would be the kind of activity that would show up negatively.  That can happen on a partial payment, or when you dispute something that they verify, but not this.  Especially because the payment was made so long ago.

Don't worry about how to explain this yet.  Take the letter you have, make copies, write a letter explaining the situation and asking them to correct it, and send one of each to everyone who is reporting this incorrectly.

[Anonymous]

When an OC sells a debt to a CA, it should be reporting a balance of $0...The OC can still show the high balance or the delinquent balance, but it should show a current balance of $0. - Credit One (the OC) is showing the charged-off amount as the "Balance", the "High Balance", and the "Past Due" on my TU Report; I believe this is the case on my EQ report as well.

Did you pay the law firm prior to a judgment being entered?? - There are no judgements showing on my credit report; the law firm only had this for about a month (I have a hard inquiry from the CA on 1/14/2008 with Permissible Purpose:  TO ACQUIRE/SERVICE/INSURE ACCOUNT  , and the PIF letter from the law firm on 2/20/2008)

All of the places on this credit report where this is reported should show a $0 if it is PIF - The only entry on my report for this is from the OC; TU has a hard inquiry from the CA, and EQ has a hard inquiry from the law firm, but no entry from either that indicates a $0 balance

Take the letter you have, make copies, write a letter explaining the situation and asking them to correct it, and send one of each to everyone who is reporting this incorrectly. - Would this be to the CRA's, or to the OC and CA?

Thank you for the response; hopefully I'm not too annoying with the questions...

Message Edited by UpUpAndAwaaaay on 06-02-2009 08:19 PM

[Anonymous]

So, only the OC is reporting? If so, don't attempt to contact the CA/Law Firm about this. You don't want them reporting.

Did you get your reports online? If so, can you copy/paste how the entry from the OC appears(leaving out sensitive/personal information)?

[Anonymous]

I'll see if I can C/P without the format getting all messed up... here is the entry on my TU -

CREDIT ONE BANK #REDACTED  

Balance: 

$1,031  

Date Updated: 

12/2007  

High Balance: 

$1,031 

Collateral: 

SLDTO SOLD TO ANOTHER LENDER 

Credit Limit: 

$350 

Past Due: 

>$1,031< 

Pay Status: 

>Charged Off as Bad Debt<  

Account Type: 

Revolving Account  

Responsibility: 

Individual Account  

Date Opened: 

06/2004 

Date Closed: 

07/2006 

Loan Type: Credit Card

Remark: 

>Profit and loss writeoff<

Estimated date that this item will be removed:   06/2013

There is no payment history on the TU report.

Can't get the EQ report right now, looks like they're doing system maintenance. I CAN tell you that there ARE payment history entries in the EQ.

I have advised the OC over the phone that I have a PIF letter, and they told me in a nutshell "That's nice, but we don't care, we sold this"

[Anonymous]

If you want it updated to show a $0 balance, I would dispute as "incorrect balance, sold account balance should be $0"

Accounts with no activity for a long period become inactive. I don't know what time length they must remain without activity before they are inactive. I've heard that having an old account that hasn't updated in a while update could cause a ding.

Before I do anything, I would check my score/report on myFICO and see if it appears this account is still counting in your util. If it is, then you for sure want to have it updated to $0, which will exclude it from the util calculations.

If not, I'm not sure I'd do much with it.

Message Edited by sidewinder on 06-03-2009 08:55 AM

[Anonymous]

Deal directly with the OC.  Send your PIF letter along with a letter explaining what is going on by CMRRR to the OC.  Specifically request that they update the account to show that it was paid on XX/XX (the date it was paid).

[Anonymous]

Sidewinder,

              I still have access to the EQ and TU reports I pulled thru annualcreditreport.com; is there an easy way to determine if this account is affecting my util thru these reports?

As an aside - I also signed up with the service that BofA provides (Privacy Assist); the scores I am getting thru that service indicate that this IS being counted in my util (which is croaking it BIG TIME). I realize the BofA is FAKO; I just need to figure out which way I want to go about getting the real scores.

[Anonymous]

---

UpUpAndAwaaaay wrote:

Sidewinder,

              I still have access to the EQ and TU reports I pulled thru annualcreditreport.com; is there an easy way to determine if this account is affecting my util thru these reports?

As an aside - I also signed up with the service that BofA provides (Privacy Assist); the scores I am getting thru that service indicate that this IS being counted in my util (which is croaking it BIG TIME). I realize the BofA is FAKO; I just need to figure out which way I want to go about getting the real scores.

---

In all of those reports/scores it may/may not be affecting your util based upon the formula THEY use. Doesn't mean in FICO's formula it is counting. Only way to know is to get reports/scores here from myFICO. They are your true scores and uses FICO's formula

[Anonymous]

Went ahead and pulled myreports/scores thru myFICO; when I run thru the "what if" simulator, the amount of CC debt that it tells me to pay down does NOT include the C1 charge-off. Does this mean my util isn't affected, and it may be best to let sleeping dogs lie?

Scores weren't as bad as I feared; EQ 633   TU 623. If the "what-if" simulator can be believed (I know this is a "many moving parts" situation), then the plan I set out for myself should have me around 700 in 12 months