Here is full summaru of how DOFD reporting to your credit file is regulated by both the FCRA and by the credit reporting guidelines used by the CRAs.
When you have a very first delinquency with the OC, they should (but don't always), in addition to reporting the delinquency to your payment history, also report a totally separate entry into field code 25 of your file with them. That first posts a date of first delinquency (DOFD), and that field code is used by the CRA, should any CO or CA later be posted to your CR, to calculate the 7-year (plus 6-months) deletion of that later reported CO or CA from your credit report.
That date remains in your credit file as the DOFD posted by the OC until such time as the account with the OC is then brought back into paid, good-standing status, and then a new date of first delinquency occurs. Then the OC should (but does not always comply) by updating the prior reported DOFD.
So, hypothically, if the OC then posts a CO or refers the debt for collection, and a debt collector then posts a CA to your CR, then the CRA has a reported date which they can use to calculate deletion of the CO of CA after 7 years from that definative DOFD.
Problems arise in this process recordation of your DOFD.
First, what if the OC never posted to your CR, and all that is there is a collection?
Second, what if the OC previously posted to your CR, but did not, throughout the progress of the account while open, update the DOFD?
The FCRA puts checks on these possibilities, in order to assure an accurate DOFD is in your credit file. That is what FCRA 623(a)(5) is all about.
First, if an OC previously reported to your credit file, they are required under FCRA 623(a)(5)(A) to additionally report, within 90-days of reporting the debt for charge-off or collection, an update of the actual DOFD on their OC account.
FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(ii) clearly specifies that the updated reporting by the OC MUST be the same DOFD that they previously reported. No re-aging by the OC.
Second, if the OC had not previously reported their account to a CRA, then it gets dicy.
Then, and only then, is the CA relied upon to provide any absent DOFD to the CRA.
Under FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(iii), the CA acting on behalf of the OC is then required to “follow reasonable procedure to obtain the date the date of delinquency from the creditor….”
Then the CA can report the DOFD, once provided to them by the OC, to the CRA.
The nighmare situation is, if the OC did not previously report to the CRA, and the CA has first taken “reasonable procedures to obtain the date of delinquency from the creditor,” and was unsuccessful in contact with the OC, then, and only then can the CA independently establish and report a DOFD to the CRA. The only stipulation is that, if they independently determine the DOFD to report, it must precede the date it was placed for collection.
both with a different DOFD. I have not had any contact written or oral nor made any payments to reset the clock on this acct. Am I correct in my understanding that the CA'S have 7 years plus 180 days from the OC'S DOFD to report on this acct, Has this acct been re-aged? Please Help Thanks. 