Credit Nebulous

May 12, 2010 11:47 AM

Credit Report shows a negative collection on a checking account I had closed 5 years ago. I called the collection agency and they agreed to dismiss the account. Is this cleared up? Am I missing something? More details inside.

About 5 years ago I had a spending money account with Compass Bank prior to their acquisition by BBVA. The account had gone dormant for about 1 year with a small balance (~9 dollars) and I closed the account. Everything was fine.

Flash forward to the future. I checked my annual credit report and was surprised to find a collection on the account for several hundred dollars. I first attempted to call Compass and they had no record of me, no record of my old account or any other information. I was passed to their collections group which promptly dropped my call (always get the number on a transfer). I then decided that it may be easier to call the collection agency.

I phoned and explained the situation to them and they requested my account information, 'verified' my address (ie wrote it down) and obtained my phone number. They stated that the account was purchased this year. I explained that the collection was strange to see and she agreed that there were weird circumstances. She decided to close the account and remove it from my credit report. However, she said that it may go back to 'vericheck' or something. I asked if this meant the collection went to them and she said it did not, just that it may "cause trouble in the future when opening a new account."

So, she says: "We will close your account and remove it from your credit report."

Are there more steps I should take? Do I need to try and track this to make sure its gone from any other places?

The financial sector is a mystery to me in many ways and I don't know if there is more that needs to be done so any advice is appreciated.

posted by anonymous to work & money (4 answers total)

Pull your credit report again in about a month's time and make sure that the information has been removed from all three bureaus. If it hasn't, call the collection agency and the bank and request written documentation that the matter was in error and requesting it be removed from your report.
posted by xingcat at 12:10 PM on May 12, 2010

There are "credit bureau" type agencies specifically for banks. I know of Chexsystems, and maybe "vericheck" is like that. An overdraft, hypothetically, might show up on a Chexsystems report that a bank runs when you try to open a new account with them. You can then order your report from them under the law about adverse determinations and getting reports. I don't know if you could otherwise order a report from those types of agencies, or who they even are. I'd never even heard of this until these certain hypothetical circumstances. But I think that's what they were talking about with this showing up elsewhere even though it's taken off of your credit report.
posted by thebazilist at 1:35 PM on May 12, 2010

I meant to add that the hypothetical bank overdraft would show up on Chexsystems without showing up on the Big 3 credit reports, so you'd have no idea it existed until you tried to open an account and were denied based on that.
posted by thebazilist at 1:36 PM on May 12, 2010

Yeah, they are probably talking about Chexsystems. Whichever bank or credit union you go to, to open an account next will give you information on how to contact Chexsystems if you are on there, or you can just try googling it and probably get a number that way. I believe Chexsystem keeps you on their system for the same amount of time a credit report keeps a debt/collection on there.
posted by Polgara at 8:47 PM on May 12, 2010