Outstanding, Thank you Gillian. That answers a number of my questions that had sprung up since this thread began, and certainly provides a bit of insight into my friends credit report.

Makes perfect sense now that it has been explained.

Finally an ANSWER!!
Okay so I spoke with an Collection Agent who I had settled an account with years ago..(by the way I invited him on this forum because he seems to know his stuff.. and he was the only one who has been pleasant person to deal with)

I asked him this...
Do 3rd Party Collections Report to Credit Bureau?

Answer:
Some do and Some Don't..

If a collection agency purchases an account YES THEY DO.

If a collection agency "represents" an account . NO THEY DON'T ..as the account may only stay with the particular agency for a couple months and move on to another agency.

So my apologies to Jaime for saying he slept in his collections class because he must work for a company that does NOT purchase accounts.

Hope that helps and I hope this guy from the collection agency visits us and provides us with some new information.

:D gillian

Star.. whether it be a Hard Inquiry (pulling your credit report to apply for credit) or a soft inquiry (pulling your credit report yourself or asking for increases in limits..etc etc with an existing credit account)

... The Hard and soft Inquiries DO NOT effect the last date of activity on an account. The only negative effect iquiries have is HARD inquiries (too many) bring down your fico score.

When we are referring to "reporting" we are referring to Last dates of payments, activities, written acknowledgment..etc. NOT inquiries.

I do believe that Collection Agencies DO report to the bureau and Jaime you shouldn't have slept through your Collection Agency training that day.
How else would these dates change?

as far as i understand it is that everytime your credit report is "pulled" by anyone (ie: yourself, a credit agency, a creditor...) it shows on the report.

I've worked for 2 different agencies and I know that they did not report anything on the bureau, the clients do that. the reason it shows with the credit bureau is because the agencies pull the person's credit report.

OMG... I completely missed that statement...

jamiedude00.. Again, agencies do not report to your bureau, they only tell the creditor if you have paid in full, or settled.

Collection Agencies most certainly DO report to the collection agencies. How can you say that? That's one of the big threats to an individual..."If you don't pay, we'll ruin your credit by reporting you to the credit bureau"

To top it all off, collection agencies report to a credit bureau automatically. It's all computer generated. On a monthly schedule, collection agencies report to the credit bureau.

Actually, Jamie, collection agencies DO report to bureau. That's why CRS is also facing a lawsuit alongside equifax.

Second, the date of last activity is defined as the date of last payment or written acknowledgement, NOT the date the status was changed. If that's what your agent trainers taught you, they're lying and you should probably pull the relevant legislations yourself so you don't get into trouble.

You can say whatever you like, Jamie, but it's all a crock-o-dung.

Hmm...

If you had R1 today and stopped making payments today, the credit item would go to R9 in 3-6 months I would imagine.

Thus there wouldn't be any changes to last date of activity after 6 months.

Last day of activity is either a) when you make a payment or b) when your credit status changes ex: R5 > R9.

I can't say why the last day of activity would change if you haven't made a payment since 2001 and it's saying 2005. There is obviously nothing to report. Only thing I would assume, is the creditor doing it so it remains on your bureau. You'd probably be able to generate a dispute claim with the bureau, but good luck.

Again, agencies do not report to your bureau, they only tell the creditor if you have paid in full, or settled.

Then please enlighten us as to WHY an original creditor puts last day of activity as for example June 01 and then puts the collection agency as last day of activity as August 05 or whatever.. and Im not talking the date assigned.. Im talking last payment/last activity..

As I said, agencies do not report on your bureau, it is the original creditor who does.