Bill Me Later changing to Comenity - will they start reporting?

[SadPanda]

I recently received an email from Bill Me Later about how they were changing their lender from WebBank to Comenity Capital Bank. I'm sure there are a lot of people who count on their Bill Me Later account being a "hidden tradeline," but I think there's a possibility that they may start reporting to credit bureaus, so people's Bill Me Later balances may show up on their credit reports soon.

On another forum, a poster said they called Bill Me Later and the customer service representative said that Bill Me Later still wouldn't report to the credit bureaus. But then another poster said they called both Bill Me Later and Comenity, and although the Bill Me Later customer service rep did say they wouldn't be reporting, the Comenity customer service rep said they would be reporting "roughly 30 days after the effective date."

So who knows which customer service rep was correct, but I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's Bill Me Later accounts start showing up on their credit reports. If that's going to happen, it would be nice if Bill Me Later/Comenity sent letters to people specifically stating that the account would no longer be hidden, since they must know a lot of people count on it being hidden. (I'm not saying they're required to do that, but it would be nice if they did, because if they do start reporting, a lot of people are going to be surprised and upset when they find out their hidden tradeline is now being reported.) Of course, it's possible the Bill Me Later customer service reps were correct, and they won't report to the credit bureaus.

In the email I received, there was a link to Comenity's privacy policy, but in terms of referencing credit bureau reporting, it basically just said they "may" share personal information with "Credit bureaus and collection agencies to report account information, as permitted by law."

[SadPanda]

I should clarify, the "effective date" (in the "30 days after the effective date" quote from the customer service rep) probably refers to the date WebBank switched to Comenity, which I believe was August 29.

I'm not exactly sure how Bill Me Later would show on a credit report, because there isn't really an actual "set in stone" credit limit. If you try to use it and it allows you to go over your current limit, they may or may not increase your credit line and allow the purchase to go through. So, for example, if your limit is $50 and you make a $100 purchase and it allows the purchase to go through, and you don't pay off the balance and then a finance charge is added, is that going to show on a credit report as being over the limit? I really don't know how Bill Me Later could be reported fairly on a credit report, because many people used it with the assumption it wouldn't be reported. A lot of people probably wouldn't have used it, had they known it would be reported eventually. I'm pretty sure it even says something on the Bill Me Later site about it not having an effect on your credit, unless that only referred to there being no hard inquiries when you make a purchase over the limit and they increase your credit line.