Please define what a duplicate entry is

I will tell you the only thing I know. I know that both the original creditor and a collection agency cannot both try to collect the money from you. I was told by a woman at one of the credit agencies that the one with the original creditor will say something like "Charge off" and will remain on your account for up to 7 years (10 for bankruptcies etc) I too have a few accounts which have multiple collection agencies listed and am trying to sort through them all now to find out which one has the actual collection and will then subsequently TRY to have the others removed from my report. Hope this helps!

Wizeenough,

Multiple entries means the account with same acc # is appearing twice in your reports. Now both the cases you mentioned above could happen - same account is reported by two separate agencies or same account is reported by the same agency twice. You can dispute these entries with credit bureaus. They should run an investigation and rectify the errors found in your report.

Hope this information helps. Let us know if you have any more doubts.

Wizeenough, I will add more on this discussion.

If your account is sold to an outside collection agency, the original creditor will mark the account as 0 balances. Thus, they won't report that account and it will be listed with the collection agency involved with it.

If your creditors are holding the account and have hired some collectors for recovering the debt, accounts will appear to be in collections but they will be listed with the original creditor. Once you pay off the account, it will be marked as 'paid collection'.

If a particular account is shown in your credit report listed with the creditor as well as the collector, it should be reflecting the actual status or else you will have to dispute with the bureau.

Thanks for the 3 replies. It gave me insight.

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