how to know if charge off is with oc?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My issue is with a sears/citi charge off which is reporting incorrectly in several ways.  The oc shows a balance so I believe the account is still with them and not sold.  This was reported as charged off two years ago and it does not seem to be affecting scores any longer.  I did send a letter to oc at the time of charge off noting that there were payments made on this account which showed that the sears employee credited the check to someone elses account ,I received no response to this letter but the account is noted as being in dispute. 

This account has not been used since 1999 but payments were made until I noticed the charge off notation(end of 2006) I would like to reach a settlement with the oc if possible but I don't want to take any hit on my scores buy "waking a sleeping giant"  . Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the best course of action is?

Also if the account has been sold is the oc obliged to note a zero balance?

Thanks for any help on this !

[Anonymous]

What is the DOFD?

If the OC sells an account, they must report a $0 balance.

Seems odd that it would be charged off while you were making payments.

Was the account still open? Was it already delinquent?

[Anonymous]

This account was closed by grantor I think in 2002 or so.  It was delinquent but I always kept paying on it (negative amitorization etc) . The account was not used since 1999 at which time I was charged incorrectly ( a large purchase)  however I probably can not prove that now. 

 I think they actually charged it off because the last payment I made was keyed incorrectly by the store employee ( I have the cancelled check with an incorrect account number on it) so I did not realize this payment was not credited until some time later.  The account must have been in delinquent status for a while because when it actually charged off there was almost no drop in my credit score from the charge off.  I got one letter from a ca I responded back that the information they had was incorrect I never got any response from the ca or the oc.  Now two years later I think it has gone to a new ca (no letter but some suspicious phone messages).

I really am at a loss as to what to do about this account.

Any thoughts?