Usually they do NOT report the sale of the account and instead continue to report a claim they no longer have. Sometimes creditors who change ownership or merge also report duplicate accounts with varying account numbers. Duplicate collection accounts are often very difficult or impossible to eliminate. Charge-offs usually do NOT have to be paid. Unfortunately, the quality of the reports prepared by most of the companies I used has been extremely poor.
Borrowers pay extra dollars for the RMCR because of the extra efforts involved.
In 1996 my clients had a tremendous problem with American Savings reporting a foreclosure that never happened. They had a 1994 letter signed by an American Savings VP apologizing for the incorrect reporting and promising correction. Unfortunately, she had lied. They again reported the foreclosure. My clients had been prequalified by Old Republic Bancorp in San Francisco in 1996.