Credit card to collections

Well... that's a strange situation. You can ask the OC to withdraw the account from collections. It will be the OC's discretion whether or not he will do so. If he withdraws the account from collections, then you can deal with the OC is order to pay off the debt and get rid of it. Once you pay off the debt, it will be positively reported in the credit report.

Anna....an account that has been sold by the creditor cannot be withdrawn....only account placed third party contingency can be withdrawn. Even if it was third party, paying a collection account will not positively report.

TO the OP....dispute the charge again with the CRA and send a letter in writing to the collection agency. A lot of times small balance accounts are bought and are just archived by the CA's...they are not worth the expense to collect on. It is probably in a data base that a normal collector cannot access. Do you demand in writing...

If the debt collector has not reported to a CRA, there is no credit reporting upon which to base a dispute with them under the FCRA.
Since the OC reported, any dispute would have to be directed at the accuracy of their reporting.
As for the debt collector, you dont have to wait until they report to request debt vlaidation under FDCPA 809(b). If you have their name and address, I would DV them.
Since response to a DV letter is not compusory (unless you live in Texas), I would address the heart of the matter by filing a dispute with the OC for inaccurate credit reporting. The basis for the inaccuracy is your assertion that the account is not yours. It is hard to prove a negative. The normal procedure for pursuing an "account not mine" assertion is to provide documentary support by way of a police report (referred to under FCRA 603(q) as an "identity theft report." The idea behind such a report is that it is assumed that if the account was not yours, but was opened in your name, then someone did it without your authorization, You dont have to prove actual identity theft, just assert it by was of the sworn statement provided by an official police report. The FCRA accepts such a statement as supporting documentation for an "account not mine" assertion.

Thank you for the responses. I am not so much trying to get away from the debt - it likely is ours even though we did not ever get a bill for it. However, I cannot pay it or settle it since no one currently claims ownership. If I dispute it, what would my argument actually be?

One last thing - to Soap Lady - the collection agency "supervisors" also could not access the account as well as "tier three" agents (whatever that may be). I think it is genuinely lost between CITI and the collection agency They are not reporting the debt at all on my wife's credit report - only CITI is and they are reporting it there as sold to Collection Agency. Weird....