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child support reporting to credit??

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Anonymous
Not applicable

child support reporting to credit??

Ive built my credit score from a 550 to a 710 over the past year. Then the other day I get a letter in the mail saying my child support arrears are going to start getting reported to the credit bureau monthly. Ive been on child support for about a year and im in the arrears $1,770. ALL of the arrears are retroactive - meaning they just accumulated over the time the claim was made for me to be put on child support up until the time it took for them to scedule a hearing and set it up to garnish wages from my job. So ive never missed a payment once & a little bit comes out of my check monthly just for appears ( always has).

 

I called the CS office wondering why after a year of my not missing payments that they now decide to report my arrears to the credit bureau.. The guy tells me "oh thats normal, they do it to everybody. Dont worry, it wont effect your credit score because you make all your payments just fine.. you only have to worry if they send you a letter saying they are going to intercept your tax return". 

 

sounds like some BS to me.. I dont see how any debt of 1,700 is not going to effect my score. Has anyone been in this same situation? In terms of arrears being reported that were retroactive? not arrears where you actually missed payments? is it true that this possibly wont effect my score?

 

The letter says I have 20 days to dispute the informations accuracy. The amount I owe is accurate I just feel this shouldnt happen to people who have made all payments and have always paid towards arrears. Should I dispute it anyway? whats the best way to go about this.

 

Also, I read there is a threshold in alot of states wheres they dont report to credit bureaus until it gets over a certain amount? is this true (im in PA). 

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: child support reporting to credit??

Someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but here is my understanding of this:

They are required to report your child support obligation to the CRAs. This reporting can follow two different paths:
1. A standard tradeline
2. A collection listing

As long as you are not delinquent in your payments, the reporting should remain just a standard tradeline. If you should stop paying the obligation, it can become a collection.

As for FICO impact, it’s my understanding that as long as it remains a tradeline, it will not effect your score either positively or negatively in and of itself. Furthermore, it’s my understanding that even if you have back support due, like in your case, it’s not considered delinquent and you should not see a negative impact (unless you stopped paying).

That said, any arrears that you may have could still be considered by lenders when evaluating your profile. Some lenders will view the arrears negatively.
Message 2 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: child support reporting to credit??

I am new to the forum so my apologies for the late reply. However, I had a similar situation to this. I was only in arrears for 1 month in the amount of $300. The amount was immediately reported to my Equifax report as a collection and this dropped my score significantly. Before I was paying on time each and every month and it was never reported. Now the account says tradeline and is in good standing however it does report the amount I’m paying. Before this happened my child support was never reported and I was paying for 4 years.
Message 3 of 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: child support reporting to credit??

I had a 30 days late put on my credit from Child support, even though they were automatically taking it from my paycheck and it hurt my score. I had to file a dispute, basically saying it's impossible for me to pay late when it's a wage garnishment. They reversed it after a few weeks, but it still took a few months for my score to go back to normal. Hopefully everything works out for you and they remove any derogs they might have put on your report.
Message 4 of 6
gdale6
Moderator Emeritus

Re: child support reporting to credit??


@Anonymous wrote:
I had a 30 days late put on my credit from Child support, even though they were automatically taking it from my paycheck and it hurt my score. I had to file a dispute, basically saying it's impossible for me to pay late when it's a wage garnishment. They reversed it after a few weeks, but it still took a few months for my score to go back to normal. Hopefully everything works out for you and they remove any derogs they might have put on your report.

Lates from wage garnishments are usually the fault of the one garnishing the payment or their paid payroll processor in failing to hand over the money in a timely fashion.

Message 5 of 6
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: child support reporting to credit??

Child support obligation is only reportable to a CRA if the consumer has become in arrears, and remains for up to 7 years from the last reported overdue date.

______________

FCRA 622   Information on overdue child support obligations

[15 U.S.C. § 1681s-1]

Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a consumer reporting agency shall include in any consumer report furnished by the agency in accordance with section 604 [§ 1681b] of this title, any information on the failure of the consumer to pay overdue support which is provided to a consumer reporting agency

  • by a State or local child sup-port enforcement agency; or
  • to the consumer reporting agency and verified by any local, State, or Federal government agency; and
  • antedates the report by 7 years or less.
Message 6 of 6
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