Direct Dispute letter feedback needed!

[Anonymous]

So I drafted my very first DD letter to Calvary Portfolio. They are reporting a wrong DOFD. My last payment to the OC was 10/2008 and they're reporting a DOFD of 6/2009. I've already contacted the OC and they no longer have any information of my account except the charge off date and the CA. The OC took a REALLY long time (12 months!) to charge off the account and I think the CA just made up their own DOFD by counting back 6 months from the CO date. Please let me know what you think!

MY NAME

MY ADDRESS

Calvary Portfolio Services
500 Summit Lake Drive, Suite 4A
Valhalla, NY 10595

Re: Account #*********

To Calvary Portfolio Services:

This is a Notice of Direct Dispute with you, under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)(D), of the accuracy of information you have reported to my credit file.

This is a direct dispute of credit reporting. This is not a request for debt validation/verification under FDCPA §809(b)

In compliance with FCRA §623(a)(8)(D), and enacting regulations published at 16 CFR §660.4, this Notice of Direct dispute includes:

Identification of the specific information being disputed:

Date of first delinquency (DOFD) as 6/2009.

Basis for the dispute:

You obtained this account from the original creditor CitiFinancial. The DOFD should be no later than 11/2008 as the last payment made to the original creditor was 10/2008. I am requesting that you send me proof of the DOFD that you are reporting by way of a complete payment history that you should have obtained from CitiFinancial.

Supporting documentation:

Enclosed I have attached a portion of a bank statement showing the last payment made to CitiFinancial. I am also including a portion of my Equifax credit report where it lists the DOFD as 6/2009.

Under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)€ and 16 CFR §660.4, you have the duty to review all of the information I have provided to you, to complete your investigation of this Direct Dispute within 30 days of my Notice of Direct Dispute, and report directly back to me with the results of your investigation within 5-days of the completion of your investigation. I am requesting that you verify this information with CitiFinancial and update my credit report to all three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, accordingly. Should you find the disputed information to be inaccurate or incomplete, or if you cannot verify the accuracy or completeness of the disputed information, you are additionally required, under FCRA §623(1)(E), to remove this account from my credit reports and to promptly notify all three credit reporting agencies.

Regards,

MY PRINTED NAME

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I drafted my very first DD letter to Calvary Portfolio. They are reporting a wrong DOFD. My last payment to the OC was 10/2008 and they're reporting a DOFD of 6/2009. I've already contacted the OC and they no longer have any information of my account except the charge off date and the CA. The OC took a REALLY long time (12 months!) to charge off the account and I think the CA just made up their own DOFD by counting back 6 months from the CO date. Please let me know what you think!

MY NAME

MY ADDRESS

Calvary Portfolio Services
500 Summit Lake Drive, Suite 4A
Valhalla, NY 10595

Re: Account #*********

To Calvary Portfolio Services:

This is a Notice of Direct Dispute with you, under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)(D), of the accuracy of information you have reported to my credit file.

This is a direct dispute of credit reporting. This is not a request for debt validation/verification under FDCPA §809(b)

In compliance with FCRA §623(a)(8)(D), and enacting regulations published at 16 CFR §660.4, this Notice of Direct dispute includes:

Identification of the specific information being disputed:

Date of first delinquency (DOFD) as 6/2009.

Basis for the dispute:

You obtained this account from the original creditor CitiFinancial. The DOFD should be no later than 11/2008 as the last payment made to the original creditor was 10/2008. I am requesting that you send me proof of the DOFD that you are reporting by way of a complete payment history that you should have obtained from CitiFinancial.

Supporting documentation:

Enclosed I have attached a portion of a bank statement showing the last payment made to CitiFinancial. I am also including a portion of my Equifax credit report where it lists the DOFD as 6/2009.

Under the provisions of FCRA §623(a)(8)€ and 16 CFR §660.4, you have the duty to review all of the information I have provided to you, to complete your investigation of this Direct Dispute within 30 days of my Notice of Direct Dispute, and report directly back to me with the results of your investigation within 5-days of the completion of your investigation. I am requesting that you verify this information with CitiFinancial and update my credit report to all three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, accordingly. Should you find the disputed information to be inaccurate or incomplete, or if you cannot verify the accuracy or completeness of the disputed information, you are additionally required, under FCRA §623(1)(E), to remove this account from my credit reports and to promptly notify all three credit reporting agencies.

Regards,

MY PRINTED NAME

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Do you have access to an EQ report showing Citi's report of this account? EQ reports (if direct from them or annualcreditreport.com) will show the actual DoFD as reported by them. That DoFD should have been provided to the CA along with the other account information. Legally the collector must use the OC's DoFD, if they can determine what it was. A report showing it would be adequate proof.

[Anonymous]

Yes EQ is the only one that shows the DOFD as 6/2009. But I know that is incorrect. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes EQ is the only one that shows the DOFD as 6/2009. But I know that is incorrect. 

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That is from Citis reporting, and not the CA?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes EQ is the only one that shows the DOFD as 6/2009. But I know that is incorrect. 

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That is from Citis reporting, and not the CA?

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No that's what's listed for the CA. The OC isnt even on my credit report any more. 

[Anonymous]

No old reports laying around? Did Citi remove it early? Your last payment of 10/08, would make the DoFD 12/08 or 01/09, so fall off of the OC account would have been as late as 06/16

[Anonymous]

I honestly have no idea what happened to it. I pulled up an old CK TU report from 2012, but it lists no payment history. It came off somewhere between April-September 2013. 

Its to my understanding that if they can't verify their information with the OC, then they must remove it from the reports, right? I already know the OC doesn't have any information because I called them. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I honestly have no idea what happened to it. I pulled up an old CK TU report from 2012, but it lists no payment history. It came off somewhere between April-September 2013. 

Its to my understanding that if they can't verify their information with the OC, then they must remove it from the reports, right? I already know the OC doesn't have any information because I called them. 

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No. *Data* that cannot be corrected must be deleted, but not the entire listing. FCRA does allow for a CA to estimate the DoFD if they do not receive it from the OC. Most will estimate by counting back six months from the reported charge off, which is a reasonable estimate, given the legal accounting requirement to CO a delinquent account at 180 days. The problem arises when the OC does not immediately report the charge off. Unfortunately there is no legal requirement to actually report the charge off when it occurs - occasionally the CO does not get reported for months, sometimes years after the fact. Portfolio may very well choose to delete the listing, but they may not. Hard to say, they are one of the CA's that can be *difficult* when they want to be.

If you have any documentation that shows the payment history of the account, submit it with the dispute.

[RobertEG]

The procedure by which a debt collector obtains and reports the DOFD is set forth in detail in FCRA 623(a)(5).

It expressly provides for the case where the debt collector has attempted to obtain the DOFD from the OC, and was unable to do so.

The procedure does not requrie deletion of their collection.  It permits them to make their best determination of the DOFD, with the proviso that in no case may they report a DOFD that is after the date they obtained their collection authority.

As Norman stated, the first step in the section 623(a)(5) process is a quick determination that permits them, if the OC has ever reported a DOFD, to report that same date.

That requires no contact with the OC.  It relies upon the presumption that if the OC provided a DOFD to the CRA, it is accurate.

However, there are situations where a creditor never reports a DOFD to the CRA.  That includes situations where the OC has never reported their account, or where the OC never reported a charge-off, and thus was not required to have reported a DOFD.

In situations where the OC did not report a DOFD, the section 623(a)(5) process requires them to take reasonable procedures to contact the creditor and attempt to obtain their DOFD.  If the OC provides them a DOFD, the debt collector is then in compliance if they report that date to the CRA.

The final, fallback procedure covers situations where the debt collector made a reasonable effort to obtain the DOFD, but was unable to get it from the OC.

They are then permitted to make their best estimate of the DOFD, and report it to the CRA.  However, since any DOFD must, by definition, have preceded any referral for collections, in no case may a debt collector report a DOFD that is later than the date they obtained their collection authority.

A debt collector is required, with no exceptions, to report a DOFD within 90 days after reporting their collection.

Yes, there are situations where they must rely on an assumed DOFD.

If you have documentation to show that their assumed DOFD is inaccurate, then provide it to the debt collector, who may then alter their reporting.

It is not a viollation to have reported a DOFD that may later be shown to not be the actual, accurate DOFD.  In fact, they are compelled to sometimes make an estimate.