Yes they do Hank, but the information they get is old, I work in finance and deal with equifax and transunion on a fairly regular basis, people get credit cards, have them for a month or 2 and think they have gained credit, it takes longer to show up on the credit bureau, and even longer to build credit. I have never spoken to a Philipino person mostly french speakers when I call the bureaus.

It's not the credit bureau's fault these things are slow, they can only report what they get from creditors who are notoriously slow and often incorrect.

Mel, if you are trying to buy a vehicle, let Equifax know this, sometimes they can speed up the posting of changes, otherwise it can take 3-4 months to be posted.

All very true, pardon my bad wording. :)

There are no sections on credit reports such as "Paid Items" or "Unpaid Items" There are "Trade Lines," 2 or 3 Sections of hard/soft inquiries (2 for Equifax; 3 for TransUnion), the "Public Records" section for judgments/bankruptcies, and the "Collections" section where they show who currently has your account. All these categories display outstanding balances along with other info.

If an item is paid or settled it'll be marked as such (unless the collection agency has conned you into thinking your partial settlement was a full one). Granted, it will look a tad better if marked paid, especially if it's a judgment and you're applying for a job in insurance or financial lending etc, Irregardless, your credit is still screwed for 6 years with the R9 on installment type credit or any other type of bad debt; and that can make it difficult to land various financial service positions.

In Ontario, many of these occupations require FSCO licencing with the application needing to be made through the employer. The sponsoring company screens the application and submits it on behalf of the applicant. The forms all have detailed questions about one's credit history, including bankruptcies and judgments (so as to assess moral hazard). If there's any dirty laundry, the potential employer will see it up front and get rid of you pretty fast. With possibly 100 candidates for one job, it doesn't take much to get removed from the short list.

In contrast, the collections industry prefers those having an entirely different profile. Convictions for fraud, extortion, intimidation, blackmail, assault, threatening death etc. would all be considered assets and desirable keywords on any applicant's resume, I would think. The ideal candidate would be a multi-hybrid Somali pirate, terrorist, biker and schizophrenic with a couple of commitments under the Mental Health Act under their belt.

First of all, unless it is a credit card (or similar), it's not a R9, it's a collections notice (as is the case with Rogers/Fido accounts). Yes it does stay there even after it is paid, but it goes from "UNPAID COLLECTIONS" to "PAID COLLECTIONS", which has a very different impact with whoever you're trying to get financing with.

Second, I was in collections in 2007 with NCO, and started working in 2009 for iQor. I was still a minor in '07 and landed myself there for a Paypal thing, hundred bucks or so, so meh, not life-ending. And being in collections does not stop you from becoming a collection agent (nor the other around). It simply adds a hurdle because the collection agency might be reluctant to hire one of their debtors... though even with iQor it is not unheard of.

And you might be right, for all I know... Indeed it got corrected shortly after I brought the letter to the Equifax office, but they might've ignored it and received the report from the agency in the meantime... hmm, that's actually interesting info there, Daniel... thanks for enlightening me, at any rate. :)

I haven't seen any cases like that. I've seen only the converse when people walked into bureau offices with signed account statements. Staff are trained to say the right things, but even with paperwork signed by the collections head manager in original ink, they were immediately discarded after the person left.

The only occasion I've seen one correction was when the person walked into the bureau office and got the agency ombudsman on the phone to personally direct the credit bureau clerk to make the amendment. And even then, it took several attempts, as the ombudsman did it only to finally be get rid of them.

Credit managers tell me bureau staff are trained BIG TIME to get rid of people. They're ordered to pay no attention to anything consumers tell them as almost all of them are trying to con the bureaus and waste their time and money. If you're a consumer, you're a nuisance to them. They don't make any money out of you so they're trained to say the right things to get you out of there as efficiently as possible.

Heck, I know one guy whose name was spelled incorrectly on his Equifax reports for years. Nothing more. He visited their office so many times and showed them everything from his passport and citizenship card to his driver's licence. All original, no copies. Heck, he could have brought the Queen with him for all the good it did. After 5 years they've still got his name wrong.

For extra fun try getting the call centre Filipina gals at TransUnion to correct an error.

I also have to wonder how you could get a collection agent's licence while being in collections yourself.

And even if someone had a release letter accepted, how much difference would that make? The R9 would still be there for the same amount of time along with bad credit.

That's incorrect: I can say from experience that I myself walked into the Equifax office here in Montreal with a release letter from NCO back in 2007 to get my report corrected, and there was no issue... it might be different outside of Quebec, I'll admit, but I assume that's the whole point of getting (and keeping!) that darn release letter, ain't it? :)

Oh, ok, I guess you do know that.

As a collection agent, you should know credit bureau staff are trained not to accept any correspondence from consumers to amend their reports. They only take orders from creditors and collection agencies.

I cannot say about how Equifax works or updates the scores, but the release letter is your paper proof that the debt was settled with the agency. If it comes to that, you can walk in the Equifax offices with the letter in hand to get them to make the corrections... happens pretty often in Montreal (where Equifax happens to have offices in the same building as us... oh, the irony!)

~Masked_Agent