Charged off and sold debt and balance reporting by creditor

If the original creditor has sold the loan to someone else, then they should have reported the account as assigned to the new owner. Once you paid the account off, it should not appear on your credit report at all.

Pinky,

The original creditor should be reporting the account as a zero balance owed to them regardless if you paid the purchaser of the account or not (if indeed purchased).

You state that you paid the collection company it was sold to. Did they tell you they were the purchaser? I ask only because absent an implicit statement from the collector that they owned the debt, there is also the chance the collector was only an assignee of the creditor.

In any case, these are semantics since the balance owed is zero either way.

You need to dispute that trade line as inaccurate. There are different trains of thought on this depending on whom you read or speak with.

One is to dispute the item outright as inaccurate without providing details of what is falsely being reported (the nature of any balance still owed). This is your right as it would be false reporting whether they sold it and should be reporting that they are owed no balance or if their assignee accepted payment in satisfaction of the balance. You are being vague in this effort with the intent that the actual trade line is removed all together if it can not be investigated and verified as accurate by the furnisher of the information (if it has been a long time since charge off-the furnisher may not respond etc...). There is more to understand about this method.

Another approach, and what is more likely to be successful, is to dispute the character of the trade line as inaccurate as it should reflect zero balance due to the either the sale of the debt, or the fact that you paid an assignee of the creditor. You will likely need written documentation of the paid transaction either way.

I know this site has resources for sending credit reporting disputes (a forum). I am not too familiar with that portion of this site. I have referred consumers to a complete & reliable free resource for years that can help guide you through the dispute process with the credit reporting agencies. You can do a google search for "freecreditfix" and find it (mods-delete at will if this reference is against terms).

You are in the drivers seat in this effort and in the end should at minimum have a charge off trade line reporting a zero balance.

All the best in your effort.


Mileage may vary