Collection Agency Don’t Know Metro

If I have a deletion letter from a collection agency that have agreed to contact the CRA’s for deletion, and OneCRA & AnotherCRA removed item but ThirdCRA updated the item to Paid Collection… and ThirdCRA says I can’t dispute the item online as it was previously verified… what should I do.  I have contacted the Collection Agency and they are telling me to dispute it with ThirdCRA and they would then request for the deletion, but ThirdCRA is not allowing me to dispute the item.

JAY

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Hello Jay,

The Credit Reporting Resource Guide (also called the Metro 2 Manual) includes all of the status codes and format that furnishers must enter to submit data to the big 3 CRA’s.  According to Section 10-3 of the Metro 2 Manual ”Third Party Collection Agency/Debt Purchaser/Factoring Company Reporting Guidelines”, the collection agency should enter Account Status Code DA into Base Segment Field 17A.

Status code DA requires the CRA to “Delete entire account (for reasons other than fraud)” and “this value should also be used for accounts reported in error”.

I would try that route first with the collection agency – contact them and advise them of the Metro 2 reporting. 

Two points regarding that are: (1) the collection agency might think that you’re nuts because how in the world do you know about Metro 2 data codes, and (2) there is a chance that the collection agency is not using the updated Metro 2 format.  This may be the case if you’re dealing with a small ‘ma and pa’ collection agency.  Although, all collection agencies remind me of the fellow in this picture, so I have to laugh at my ‘ma and pa’ comment.

In any regard, if you have the letter requesting deletion then you have additional evidence and are entitled to dispute the item. 

Dispute Online, Phone, or Mail?  The answer, of course, is Cerified Mail Return Receipt Requested (CMRR).

Thanks for the questions.

Paul