Cost to report to credit agency

Factual Questions
1

Does it cost a business any money to report you to a credit agency. Someone told me it costs 15 dollars, but I always figured it would be free to the reporting company, and that the credit agencies make their money from the fee for credit reports.

Also, are there any rules for how many times a company has to contact you before reporting? If not, it seems it would be easy to screw your enemies by starting a company and making bogus reports to the credit agency? Is there any time frame in which a bill must be sent. For instance, if not sent for a year, is one still responsible for payment?

2

I’m not sure about the cost, but a merchant must be registered and have an account with each of the 3 major credit bureaus in order to submit reports to them. They require an electronic file in a very specific data format. Typically a company will send a report each month for all active accounts in their database showing current status, number of late payments, etc. I’m not sure if there is a mechanism to submit a one-time report for a single customer.

3

No charge.

Company must be screened as legit, enter in agreement etc. Bogus companies have been set up, yes.