On one's credit report, how many different collection agencies are entitled to be listed (as separate accounts with their own different account numbers) when referencing one single original charge account? They use different dates and different amounts (which reflect payments I may have made in the interim) but make it appear that I have many more accounts than I actually do when each account gets multiplied three and four times.

It is easy to see how such a listing of collection agencies that have all handled the same account could look like multiple accounts. However, future creditors are unlikely to see such listings this way.

When an unpaid collection account is sold, the agency that sold it usually reports the account as either "closed" or as a "charged-off" or even as "sold," denoting that they have finished with it. When the new agency opens the account, the dates of the new opening will follow with a new account number, starting a sequence. If the account is sold more than once, the same closure notations will be issued, and a new account date started with another new account number. Potential creditors are normally quite familiar with collection agency sequences and realize that these kinds of listings are related to one original account.

The changing balance amounts that you mentioned are also a tip-off to the fact that all of the different account numbers, dates, and agencies are handling the same account.

For more information on collection account cycles, you may wish to read "When That Collection Notation Will Cycle-Off-For The Last Time."