Can Neteller Impact a US Credit Report?

December 6, 2006 12:16 AM

Can offshore companies such as neteller, firepay, various online gambling sites and other such companies that operate outside of the US, but have us based customers, tarnish or submitt negative information to US credit reporting agencies (trans union, Equixfax, etc) ?
posted by crewshell to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Normally, if a company were to report, there would be a two-way relationship with the bureau: the company provides info to the bureau, the company purchases reports from the bureau in turn.

If the company has no U.S. presence, there could be an extra cost of business involved. Neteller does have an office in Calgary, where it wouldn't be difficult to set up a sales call from a bureau, though. Some businesses might not want to operate over international boundaries that way. Given that offshore gambling principals have been detained in the U.S. recently, it seems unlikely that they'd fly here to open a business relationship with Trans Union, for example, or that a U.S. credit bureau would want to be associated with them. (Again, that's "unlikely", not "impossible".)

Have you signed a credit agreement with the company? I'm not that familiar with Neteller, but from the description on their site, it doesn't look like they're issuing credit themselves, so they may not be accumulating credit histories to report on.

If any company gets a judgment against you in a U.S. court, that judgment will almost certainly show up. That's not reported by the company to the bureau. If they refer the amount to a collection agency, that agency might report, but that would come directly from the agency, not from the company.

But again--for them to get a judgment against you, they'd have to file in a U.S. court. Is the cost of doing this worth it to the offshore company? Maybe yes, maybe no, depends on the size of the debt, the availability of a legal service to do this for them, etc.

Some of the above is generalized, because we don't have all the info on your situation. Quickest way to find out? Pull your report and see if anything shows up. Also look to see if the company in question has an inquiry listed on your report.

Also note that you're mentioning Trans Union, Equifax, etc.--companies that report on individuals. A business-to-business situation is less regulated, and could be different, for example, if you own Acme Inc., and Acme Inc. has an outstanding debt, and the debt shows up on the Dun & Bradstreet report for Acme Inc.
posted by gimonca at 6:03 AM on December 6, 2006

I believe these would show up as bounced checks, and be reported by ChexSystems and such.

That said, I could be wrong.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 10:32 AM on December 6, 2006