Whenever an original creditor reports a charge-off, they are required to additionally report the DOFD no later than 90 days after reporting of the charge-off.
The creditor can then report that they have referred the delinquent debt to a debt collector at any time.
A debt collector can then report their collection activity at any time. Once they report their collection, they are similarly required to obtain and report the DOFD onthe OC account.
It is the reported DOFD that is used by the CRA to determine when both the charge-off and collection must become excluded from your credit report.
Regardless of when reported, no CO or collection can remain in normal credit reports after 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD.
The CRAs typically show the estimated or expected exclusion date in your credit report rather than the actual DOFD, and the esimated exclusion date typically includes an early exclusion of approx 6 months. Thus, an estimated date can vary depending upon how much earlier the CRA intends to exclude.
If you have factual information that shows a reported DOFD (as opposed to an estimated exclusion date) is inaccurate, you can dispute its accuracy by use of your documentation. First, you must have evidence of the reported DOFD, and not the estimated exclusion date shown in a credit report.
