Medical DOFD??

[Annjilique]

By months lol they're all over the place. Some of them are in my favor but the one from10/08 are all severely wrong. Which leaves me to believe they have no bills and can't verify.

[Annjilique]

I disputed and transunion deleted three but I don't know what their reasoning was.

[RobertEG]

If the debt collection is based on billings from the physicians, then the physician bills set the date of first delinquency.

If their bills set a due date of 30 days from billing, for example, then the DOFD would be the billing due date, not 180 days thereafter.

Did the physician bills actually set dates of 5-7 months after billing as the due date?  That billing due date affixes the actual DOFD.

The debt collector was required under FCRA 623(a)(5) to have reported the DOFD within 90 days of reporting their collection.

So there should be no issue in your credit file as to what they consider the DOFD to be.  The issue for the consumer is then whether they consider that date to be accurate.

The consumer can always obtain the reported DOFD by simply sending a request to the CRA under FCRA 609(a)(1).

No one can state definatively whether their reported DOFD complied with the requirements of the statute without knowing the steps they took to obtain it.

The required procedure they must follow is set forth in FCRA 623(a)(5).

If the OC ever reported a DOFD to the CRA, then it is open and shut.  They must report that same date.  However, that is not the case in this situation.

If the OC has never reported a DOFD, then the debt collector is required under section 623(a)(5) to contact the creditor and attempt to obtain the DOFD.

If the creditor provides them a DOFD, they must report that date.  Hard to tell from the scenario if that in fact happened, and thus whether the reported DOFD was actually obtained from the creditor or estimated by the debt collector.

If good faith attempts to obtain the DOFD from the creditor fail, then the debt collector is still required to report a DOFD to the CRA within 90 days of the reporting of their collection, so is then permittted to make their best estimate of the DOFD, but in no case may they report a DOFD that is later than the date they received their collection authority.

Thus, without knowing the DOFD they actually reported or the procedures they used to obtain that date, it is not possible to assert they have violated their reporting requirements.

[Annjilique]

None of the drop off dates or DOFD dates match. Each account has a different date on each report. I've never recieved bills for these so I have no clue what they would be.

[RobertEG]

The "drop off date" estimates have no legal significance, as they are just CRA estimates.  The only significant date is 7 years plus 180 days from DOFD, which is the maximum statutory period that the collections can continue to be included in your credit report.

The "clue" is what the debt collector has asserted to be the DOFD, which is of record in the credit file, and assumed to have been reported in compliance with the statute.

Unless you have evidence that their reporting is not in compliance with the statututory reporting requirements, or can prove an actual DOFD that is different from that reported, it will be difficult to contest.  Since you dont have documentation of billing, then that's difficult.

Debt collectors are not required to provide documenation of creditor billing, either in response to a dispute or a debt validation request, so the burden is not upon them to "prove" the billings.  They can rely upon a statement of DOFD from the creditor.

Since the apparent, reported DOFDs are fairly close to the dates of service, and since I dont see clear evidence of violation, I would let it be.

[guiness56]

Yes, I said it incorrectly.