Do all creditors show up on a credit report?

If the debt is legitimate, then they will be able to provide you with a contract or other supporting documentation that the debt is valid.

In the US, they are bound under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.



Not all debts show on a credit report. Credit cards and whatnot automatically appear, but otherwise they have to pay to list the debt in the report.

What DrewDad said.

Re: Do all creditors show up on a credit report?


Depends how concerned you are about your credit score I guess.

You can dispute the entry with the credit reporting agency/company. One of the protections you have (assuming you live in the U.S.) under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that DrewDad mentioned is that creditors can't "age" a debt - i.e. They can't sell it to a new debt collector and restart the clock on it.

If you don't have the receipt but have copies of older credt reports that show the original dates on the debt you should submit that to the credit reporting agency with your complaint. If they do their job they'll contact the company that reported it and make them verify it or else it gets pulled.

EDITED TO ADD: Something else that may come into play here that I just thought of - Not all creditors make reports to all 3 of the major credit reporting companies. You may have had a debt that was only being reported to one of the three and the new collection agency might be reporting to a different system. You should always get your free annual credit report from all 3 reporting companies - not just one.

Thanks for all help.
Many great answers here. I am very concerned about my credit report, which is why this suprised me. We cleared many things up 9 years ago. And now we have pretty good credit which makes me wonder if there was something fraudulent going on.

That's always a possibility, so it's always a good idea to follow up on questionable charges you don't recognize. It's up to the creditor to show it's still owed through their documentation, and if not, the credit rating company should change your rating - to show the improvement.

In today's credit environment, it's always a good idea to play it "safe."