Canceled Card history hurting my credit?

[Anonymous]

 First of all this is a great site! I have only been looking it over for an hour or so, but have already learned quite a bit!   

    I had some bogus charges show up on one of my credit cards a few years ago.  After clearing up the issue, my credit card company sent a new card and issued a new card number.  The problem I'm having now is that even though I've had the same account for the past 12 years it's showing up as two accounts on my credit reports (one open, one closed). That would be fine, except for the fact that I had a few 30 day late marks about 5 years ago that are showing up on the canceled card history.  Is there any way I can have the two accounts linked on my reports so the negative marks no longer show? Had they not issued a new card they would have fallen off long ago, but since the account is closed there is not new activity. Also would I contact the credit report agencies or the card company?   Thanks in advance for putting up with my newbie questions.

Message Edited by Zofchak on 01-08-2010 06:41 PM

[RobertEG]

Hi Zofchak, welcome to the forums!

My brief read is that you had prior delinquencies that you want removed.

The fact that the creditor issued a new account number under your credit line does not seem to me to be a big factor.

If the prior delinquencies were legit, and you do not seem to dispute that, then merging the two accounts wont erase them.

But in the long run, it does not matter the account number under which a delinquency occured.

FCRA 605(a)(5) mandates that no credit report issued by a CRA can contain reporting of any monthly account delinquency that occured more than 7 years from its individual date of delinquency.

So, what was the specific date of each delinquency with the original creditor?