Will the real original creditor please stand up?

Providian is owned by Washington Mutual.

Credit cards are issued by a small number of companies like Chase and others, the "Issuer". They are issued in the name of a "Merchant", so you can have a Continental Visa, or a Fluffy Bear Mastercard, or whatever. You are the consumer who uses the card.

The person who lends the money is the Issuer, so they would be the "original creditor".

SOAPLADY
Providian is owned by Washington Mutual.

In that case, same question, different bank. :)

Guest:
Credit cards are issued by a small number of companies like Chase and others, the "Issuer". They are issued in the name of a "Merchant", so you can have a Continental Visa, or a Fluffy Bear Mastercard, or whatever. You are the consumer who uses the card.

The person who lends the money is the Issuer, so they would be the "original creditor".

So basically, what you are saying here is, the actual original creditor would be Washington Mutual, and not Providian? Thanks. That answered my question.

Can the original creditor be erased from a credit report if taken over by a collection agency? Why I ask is the original creditor is not on my report. The collection agency is. There is no record of the original creditor.

Same here. However..it wasn't a credit card. The CA is on my CR, NOT the OC. OR...in some cases, BOTH are. GOSH...credit is confusing.

Now it is possible that the original creditor never reported and only the CA is reporting. However for the purposes of the 7 year +180 day reporting period if the OC no longer is reporting due to the fact that their reporting period has expired then all associated collection trade lines must also be removed, per FCRA.

I have seen it plenty of times when a OC and a CA both have a debt listed...now I just assumed it was legal..but now that I think about it...shouldn't it be considered a duplicate listing? If the OC already has it on the report, a CA shouldn't..its the same dang account....I wonder if we could successfully argue that any CA listing is a duplicate?

Its not a duplicate, if a collection agency reports correctly (legally) on a credit report they can show up on the CR along with the OC, however collection accounts (properly reporting) do not damage your FICO score as much as the delinquent account the OC is reporting. However the CA entry is tied to the OC's so once the reporting period on the OC's trade line expires the CA has to go as well.

Its not a duplicate, if a collection agency reports correctly (legally) on a credit report they can show up on the CR along with the OC, however collection accounts (properly reporting) do not damage your FICO score as much as the delinquent account the OC is reporting. However the CA entry is tied to the OC's so once the reporting period on the OC's trade line expires the CA has to go as well.

JCEMT I did not know this. with my situation (I posted it already) only one of my credit reports shows a CA (not the one I'm dealing with but one that had the case before it was sold/transferred to the one I'm dealing with - confusing!). The other two credit reports don't show anything because I'm assuming it fell off with the OC. So wait, how does it work if it was with the OC, then went to one CA, then another. Do they all fall off at the same time? Like I said, the one I'm dealing with now isn't on my CR, the intermediate one is.

Well, if the original creditor can no longer report as the reporting period has passed then all related collection trade lines must be deleted. If a CA (collection agency) is reporting on your credit report and it gets recalled from them or sold to another CA then their trade line must be removed. It sounds to me that the CA your dealing with may be reporting a later than actual open date (known as re-aging) which is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.