Help! I am new to this, so I was to apologize beforehand if this has been answered before but I am desperate! Here is the background: In March 2009, I went to register for the upcomming Summer semester and found out I had a hold on my account for a fee I didnt pay for $44. I paid the school directly and I thought that was the end of that. Turns out this fee had been from 2008 and was reported to General Revenue Corporation. Below is a copy of the 11/23/2010 Experian entry: GENERAL REVENUE CORP Original Creditor: COLLEGE OF STHRN NEVADA Status: Paid,Closed. Date Opened: 06/2008 Reported Since: 09/2008 Date of Status: 03/2009 Last Reported: 03/2009 Type: Collection Terms: 1 Months Monthly Payment: $0 Responsibility: Individual Credit Limit/Original Amount:$44 High Balance:NA Recent Balance: NA Recent Payment: NA Account History: Collection as of Sep 2008 to Nov 2008 Now, moving along, in December I began to clean up all my negative entries. I sent PFD letters to all open collections and GW letters to those that were paid, General Revenue Corportation being one. Along with sending the GW letter, I also disputed it w/ Experian thinking that they would not verify because it was so old, it was paid, and it is only for $44. WRONG! I run my report today 1/6/11 and saw they did verify and they also updated everything to December 2010: GENERAL REVENUE CORP Original Creditor:COLLEGE OF STHRN NEVADA Status: Paid,Closed. Date Opened:06/2008 Reported Since:12/2010 Date of Status:12/2010 Last Reported:12/2010 Type:Collection Terms:1 Months Monthly Payment:$0 Responsibility:Individual Credit Limit/Original Amount:$44 High Balance:NA Recent Balance:NA Recent Payment:NA Account History:Collection as of Dec 2010 I know that this is NOT a good thing, but what do I do? Please someone help me, I am so confused! I know I messed up somewhere; Im a newbie so go easy on me LOL!
Well, unfortunately, it appears that the CRA's entry is correct. A debt does not come off your report just because it has been paid. All the CRA needs to do is update it to show "paid", which it appears they have done. Your credit report is meant to show a record of your creditworthiness for the past 7 years, and this is exactly what they're doing. So while it's always worth trying a goodwill letter, the CA / CRA is under no obligation to help you. You can certainly try additional letters, but there's nothing that requires this to be removed from your report if it was a legitimate debt. The good news is that given the size and nature of this debt, it shouldn't have much of an impact if you put a year or two of positive credit history after it. And it will automatically fall off your report in 2015.
I understand that the CA or the CRA is under no obligation to remove this debt. I mean, it is valid; I paid it; but did I hurt myself but contacting the CA via my dispute and GW letter and having them update an account that had not been reviewed in over a year? I know it is small and maybe not even worth spazing over, but just for my peace of mind, did I just reawaken something I should have left alone?
No, not at all. For the purposes of calculating the reporting time, the CRAs use the date of last activity. I have seen people argue that this is the date of your last payment, and others argue that this is the date of delinquency. From what I can piece together, it's always the later of the two. Thus, paying on a six-year-old debt is generally not a great idea. In my experience, CAs update their entries with the CRA monthly. Don't be surprised if three years from now, you're still seeing this updated every month. Like everything else they do, it's an automated process. It's possible that they updated due to your correspondence, but this really doesn't affect anything anyway. So you've done absolutely nothing wrong and you've woken nothing.
