How To Report A Settlement To The Credit Bureau

Below you will find the correct method of reporting a Settlement in Full (SIF) to the credit bureaus to ensure that:

You are compliant as a data furnisher under the most current version of the METRO2 Guidelines
Consumers do not have meritorious grounds to pursue you legally, claiming 'damages' because of an incorrectly updated or an incorrectly reported paid collection

Useful Note If your site reports SIF accounts as Paid in Full (PIF) after adjusting the balance to zero, the following would not apply. This is strictly for sites that distinguish between PIF and SIF and report these as two distinct types of paid collections to the credit bureaus.

Credit Report Details Form

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The Credit Report Details form is used to set credit reporting details for a debtor and cosigners.

Credit Report Details

Options used as default values when you report Debtor credit are set in the Credit Report Preferences form. These settings can be changed here, at the individual Debtor level, if necessary. In most cases, the defaults should be fine. You may need to set the Association field on an individual level.

If you are having trouble deciding what values should be set, contact your local credit bureau representative.

Useful Note Choices provided are for normal collection and credit management agencies. You can choose an item from the pick list to enter its corresponding code in the credit report settings.

Warning Note WARNING: Reporting credit is a legal matter. You are responsible for ensuring that the information you are sending is accurate and complete. Do not report credit without being ABSOLUTELY SURE about your legal rights and the legal rights of the person or entity you are reporting.

Reporting Credit With Collect!

When you setup your credit bureau reporting correctly, Collect! takes care of all the details by automatically scheduling a Metro contact for each debtor that you want to report. After you report, Collect! forwards this contact for the next reporting period. Collect! tracks changes in the debtor's profile for credit bureau purposes and reports the correct codes to the bureau.

The Credit Report Details form is where you keep track of the debtor's status for credit reporting purposes. Changes that you make to the settings on this form will be reflected in your credit bureau report.

Report To Credit Bureau

When this flag is checked, the Debtor is set to be reported to the credit bureaus.

Useful Note Please make sure you have permission from your client to report this debtor. You may want to visit the Client Settings to ensure that credit bureau reporting is enabled.

Control Account Manually

When this is switched ON, Collect! will not change the credit reporting Account Status when processing Metro contacts for reporting to credit bureaus. This means you will have to manually select the required Status from the pick list when the account's status changes.

Useful Note By default, the Account Status for reporting, such as "Seriously past due" or "Paid in full," changes depending on the reporting industry and the state of the account. Ordinarily, you do not need to control accounts manually. Collect! puts additional information into the Payment Rating field where necessary to retain information, (e.g. 30-60-90 days overdue for credit grantors).

Useful Note This is useful for special requirements, such as changing an ECOA Association Code at a later date, after the Account is Paid in Full. Or, setting the Account Status to Paid in Full when posting Early Payoff or adjustments with advanced Interest settings.

If you switch this box ON by checking Control Account Manually, the system will completely skip over this account if you have not manually invoked an In Progress Metro Contact Event on the debtor each time you want to report, i.e. Monthly. Unless there is a specific reason to turn this feature ON inside individual debtors, it is best left OFF, in the default position.

Start Reporting

By default, this field will show Today's Date unless there is an In Progress Metro Contact on the account. In that case, it will display the date of the Metro Contact, instead.

If you are manually initializing an account to report (as opposed to \Batch Processing\Prepare accounts for CBR), the date populated will automatically reflect any global or client specific Delay Days that are to be applied before allowing the account to report. This is reflected in a forward-dated Start Reporting date that carries to the Due Date in the Metro contact that is created when you check the 'Report to credit bureau' switch ON.

If you want to adjust the date further on a per debtor basis AND the In Progress Metro has already been created, by clicking on the Calendar icon at the right of the 'Start reporting' field or simply keying in MM/DD/YYYY format the date you want the account to first report, this will also update the Metro in the Contacts tab.

Useful Note This date should not be changed if an account has already been reported and the account is NOT being controlled manually.

Useful Note If the 'Delay Report' switch is ON in the Credit Bureau Setup form, the Delay Days value will be reflected here. The extra days are only added to Today's Date if this is the first time you are setting up credit bureau reporting on this account. You can select a different date if you wish.

Reporting Industry

This field contains the industry type that classifies the reporting agency. The list of default industries provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. When you select one of the industries in the list, other pick lists change to enable you to set the account type based on the industry.

Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Account Type

This field contains the account type code that identifies the account classification. The list of default account types provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. The choices for this field change depending on the industry selected for the Reporting Industry.

Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Status Code

This field contains the status code that properly identifies the current condition of the account. The list of default status codes provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Payment Rating

This field contains settings for specifying whether or not an account is Current or Past Due. It is only visible for certain Status Codes that Collect! does not handle automatically. Please refer to How to Setup Credit Bureau Reporting for details.

Portfolio

This field contains the type of the debt. The pick list offers choices for common credit and loan types. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Special Comments

This field is used in conjunction with the Account Status to further define the account. Special comment codes, when found, will however take precedence over the value in Account Status.

The list of default choices provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Association Code

This is used to designate an account in compliance with the ECOA. This setting can be changed for an individual Debtor while you are on the Credit Report Details form accessed from the Debtor form.

The list of default choices provided by Collect! covers normal collection and credit management. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Condition Code

This field allows for reporting of a condition that is required for legal compliance; e.g., according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Country Code

This is the country that the Debtor lives in.

The list of default country codes provided by Collect! shows only a few of the most used country codes. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list or adding to it.

Indicator

This field contains a value indicating a special bankruptcy condition which applies to the debtor cosigner. Please refer to your Metro2 Manual for help in choosing from the pick list.

Report Cosigner

This is used to determine if the Debtor has a cosigner to be reported.

Cosigner

Selecting this button will take you to the Debtor Cosigner form.

If you are reporting Cosigners, all 3 bureaus require that the Association and ECOA fields be set. The Cosigner creates with "Not Reported" as the default selection in Association. You must select either Associated Consumer � Same Address or Associated Consumer � Different Address from the drop-down pick list. In the ECOA drop-down, the mass majority of the time in credit and collections the selection will be either Joint Contractual Liability or Business/Commercial when the account is NEW and first being reported.

Any changes/updates to the Cosigner such as 'Delete Borrower' or 'Consumer Deceased' must be selected from the Cosigner form.

Deleting the Borrower from the Cosigner screen deletes ONLY the Cosigner, leaving the primary debtor still reported.

Useful Note Pressing F1 from the Debtor and Cosigner forms will bring up help for each field in those forms. This help includes credit bureau reporting details for entering information in each field that pertains to credit reporting. Please read this help carefully, as information sent to credit bureaus must be in an EXACT format.

Defaults

When reporting a Debtor to the Credit Bureaus, there are certain settings that need to be reported to the bureaus.

Select this button to display the Credit Report Preferences form where you can choose default credit reporting settings at the system level. When you flag a Debtor to be reported to the Credit Bureau, these default settings will automatically apply to the Debtor.

You can override these defaults on an individual Debtor level through the Credit Report Details dialog.

Help

Press this button for help on the Credit Report Details form and links to related topics.

Cancel

Selecting this button will ignore any changes you have made and return you to the previous form.

OK

Selecting this button will save any changes you may have made and return you to the previous form.

Report A Settlement

The following represents the full series of steps that are required to get a SIF accurately to the credit bureau(s).

Warning Note WARNING: Order of Operations DOES Matter!

Post the settlement payment as normal.

Click into your CBR tab on the account and select the drop-down menu beside the label Special comments.
1. From the pick list displayed, select Account Paid in Full for Less than the Full Balance.
2. Exit the CBR tab without changing anything else.
3. This will create a Metro2 Contact event In Progress that evidences an SC (Special omments) code of AU.

Useful Note Pandemic Special Comments Code AW (Affected by Natural or Declared Disaster) can be removed at this juncture if it was in place because the account is being reported as paid in full for less than the full balance.

Return to the Transactions Tab and post a transaction with Financial Type Adjustment to zero out the balance.
1. This will modify the In Progress Metro2 so that the AS code changes from 93 to 62.
2. It will turn OFF the account from future CBR reporting.

Useful Note This can be blended into your SIF contact plan for process efficiency.

The resultant Metro2 Contact would appear as below. The AS62 identifies Paid in Full and the SCAU modifies that context to mean 'for less than the full balance'.

Metro Contact with AS62 and SCAU

The CBR tab would appear as follows. Note that the Report to credit bureau switch is now OFF. This happened automatically when the Adjustment was posted and the Owing zeroed out.

CBR Tab

The METRO2 stipulation which requires this is as below.

Exhibit 6 of the Metro2 Guide

If your site is the Creditor (first party collections), there may be need of a different Account Status (AS) code besides the 62. They are defined as follows:

AS Code	Metro2 Description
13	Paid in full
61	Paid in full; voluntary surrender
62	Paid in full; collection account or claim
63	Paid in full; was a repossession
64	Paid in full; was a charge off
65	Paid in full; a foreclosure was started

For internal inventory management purposes, other events that sites may choose to execute in their SIF Contact Plans are:

Write a noteline that the account is SIF
Update the Collect! status code to SIF
Send Release Letter (optional/agency preference)
If you have a global PIF Contact Plan in your Payment Posting Options that is set to automatically run on all accounts which attain a zero Owing, you do not need to add a Close event; the PIF Contact Plan will run by itself when the Adjustment posts and already includes a Close Mode event as part your site's workflow, if applicable.

Useful Note If your Default Payment Options Contact Plan is PIF, you can add a Schedule IF condition on the Status Event so that your SIF status is not changed if it was on the account prior to the Adjustment to zero the Owing being processed.

Schedule If on Debtor Status

Post a credit adjustment for 100% of owing (Step 3 for CBR reporting of SIF), set up as follows:

Adjustment Transaction Type Example

An example Contact Plan would look like the following:

Example SIF Contact Plan

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