As I mentioned in my previous posts, it matters not whether you pay this collection account or ignore it or whether you pay the outstanding account to the collection agency or directly to the doctor, it will continue to remain on your Credit Report for 6 years until it is purged by the Credit Bureaus. Sending a receipt to the Credit Bureaus is a waste of time because they will ignore it. If this bill is paid to the collection agency, they will report it to the Credit Bureaus as paid and the Credit Bureaus will show this "collection account" as paid but it will continue to remain on your Credit Report. Paying this bill to the doctor will in all probability not be reported to the Credit Bureau. Therefore it will continue to show as an unpaid "collection account".

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Educating one Consumer at a time

"In Ontario, under Paragraph 9(3)(f) of the Consumer Reporting Act, no Credit Report shall contain negative information after 7 years ( i.e. collection account, judgment, bankruptcy ). The Credit Bureau's POLICY is to purge all listed Collection Accounts after 6 years. Other Provinces and Territories have similiar legislation."

You're right Footloose, but you forgot about Pitkin not interpreting Section 9(3)(f) as applying to collection agencies loading up your credit reports for 99 years with an unlimited number of hard inquiries as "negative information."

No, they may not affect your credit score after a year, but scores are often only one factor potential lenders use. Do you think a guy applying for a mortgage with a credit score of 800 is going to get the prime rate if the lender sees 17 hard inquiries from Global Credit and Collections on his report - no matter how old? Besides, the lender doesn't know how many debts they pertain to?

Okay I hit a snag i can not get anywhere with the answers from the collection agency. If I go down and pay the doctor can I then fax the reciept to the credit bureau and get them to take it off, or will they not do this?

Thank you everyone. I will take care of paying it off now.

The statement made by average_joe is correct. It matters not whether you pay the doctor directly or whether you pay CBV Collections. In all likelihood, the doctor is not a member of either Credit Bureau; therefore there is no incentive for the doctor to report the payment of this outstanding account to the Credit Bureau. Because all Collection Agencies are members of the Credit Bureaus, any payments received on an account that has been assigned to them would be reported to the Credit Bureaus. Don't confuse the Statute of Limitations with the listing of this Collection Account on your Credit Report. The two are independent of each other. All a SOL does is that it imposes a limitation period under which a creditor can sue you. Thousands of Credit Reports show a Collection Account listed that is beyond the SOL. That is very common today.

The reason why Collection Accounts stay on your Credit Reports for 6 years before being purged is that when a creditor or a potential creditor requests your Credit Report, they want to see an accurate picture of your credit history. By deleting a Collection Account by simply paying the outstanding bill does not accurately reflect your credit history. If you have defaulted on a financial obligation for any reason and it has gone to a Collection Agency to collect, the reader of a Credit Report wants to know that. It may determine whether you are granted credit and if granted, at what price ( interest, APR ).

In Ontario, under Paragraph 9(3)(f) of the Consumer Reporting Act, no Credit Report shall contain negative information after 7 years ( i.e. collection account, judgment, bankruptcy ). The Credit Bureau's POLICY is to purge all listed Collection Accounts after 6 years. Other Provinces and Territories have similiar legislation.

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Educating one Consumer at a time

The collection agency has it listed on my credit report, it is not past the statute of limitations. So if I pay this account to the doctors office and forward the payment reciept to Equifax and Transunion it won't remove it from my account. This is crazy.

If the collection agency puts their information in your file; it’s going to stay on there for six years from the date of last activity, date of last payment or date of last delinquency.

Okay so what you are telling me is if i want this off my credit I have to deal with the collection agency?

If this doctor's bill shows as a "collection account", it will remain on your Credit Report for 6 years. Paying this bill will NOT remove it from your Credit Report. Your doctor should report this paid account to Equifax and TransUnion but in all likelihood he/she won't.

If you pay the bill to CBV Collections, they will report the account to both Credit Bureaus as paid. It will then show on your Credit Report as "Paid" or "Paid by Debtor".

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Educating one Consumer at a time

Okay so then how do I get it off my credit report? Do I pay it off and then forward the reciept to Equifax and trans union?