I had an account with HBSC awhile ago. I think around 2002. They somehow sold this account to EMCC on 5/2006 but they are still reporting it but with no lates on the bureaus. is this legal? Plus they admitted it in a letter. I posted a piece of the letter below. Another thing, I do not even see EMCC on my credit bureaus?! AND the phone number they listed for EMCC does NOT work. But somehow someone is really taking the time to mess up my credit. What's the next step? This letter is confirmation that we are currently reporting your account to the consumer-reporting agencies as follows: Account is sold. Any balance that may have been due was transferred in the sale. As of May 17, 2006, we no longer own this account. Please direct all future inquiries regarding this account to the new legal owner. EMCC (800) 365-0492
How is this account actually reported on your credit reports by HSBC? Is it listed as a charge off that's been sold? If so, HSBC can continue to report the charge off for the next 7 years because that's exactly what it was for them. Fortunately, they're not reporting any late pays too. EMCC sounds like the collection agency that bought your debt from HSBC; however, they've yet to report it as a collection to the bureaus. That's a good thing, because once they do you'll have 2 negative marks on your credit reports for the same debt. I haven't heard of them before, but after a quick Google search, it looks like EMCC and Asset Acceptance, LLC might be one in the same. The owner/manager's name of Asset Acceptance is the same (Arthur Levine) as the guy who founded EMCC, Inc. Here's a link: Asset Acceptance, LLC: EMCC, Inc. If you owe the debt and you're ready to deal with it, you'll need to work directly with the collection agency at this point. It sounds like you haven't received any communication from they yet?
If the HSBC account was past due and charged off, it would then be sold to a third-party collection agency. Which is what has apparently happened with your account. You need to get a copy of all 3 of your credit reports and dispute the entries. If and when the collection agency sends you a letter or reports to the bureaus, you should then send them a notice to Cease and Desist and dispute their entry as well. You can order all 3 of your reports through free annual credit report.
Whatever you do, DO NOT PAY THE CHARGED OFF DEBT TO THE COLLECTION AGENCY! If you do, it will show "paid after charge off" and it will affect your credit the same as if unpaid. Your debt to credit ratio will be lower; however, it really will not matter if that entry is on your report. Use your leverage... Be smart .... Never pay a collection agency. That's why I created J & K Associates to educate consumers, get their credit up to par, and to run preadatory lenders out of business by positioning consumers to get good loans and other financial products.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their input! I see where HBSC has written this as a charge off on my credit file. Also, I have noticed they have not placed a date of last delinquency on the file either, I called TU and they noticed there was none also. And everyone is right EMCC is NOT reporting anything so I figure that HBSC has this debt from 2002 and they are close to the date where it will fall off but they continue to report it as currently delinquent. I'm just wondering a good course of action to have them removed without further incident. CRA or back to them to have it deleted?
Can you find the actual date of the charge off on your credit reports? It should be listed on there, and the debt will fall off 7 years from that date. If you believe it's wrong or missing, I would start out by specifically disputing that through the CRAs.
