Question about DOFD

[Anonymous]

I have a collection account with PRA.  Original credital is Capital One in the amount of $ 806.  It was only for  $500 but after all the late fees and charges from Capital One, it came out to be that amount.  Anyway, according the credit reports I received from Annual Credit Report, it does not the DOFD listed.  I only see Placed for collection date on Transunion 09/25/2014, and the estimated month and year this item to be removed is 02/2019.  PRA also has this account as an open account if it matters.  On my Experian report, Date opened Sep 2014, First reported Jan 2015, and the "This account is scheduled to continue on record until Dec 2018".

From what I've read so far, usually it takes seven years plus 180 days for it to fall off.  Does this mean this account DOFD should be prior to Sept of 2014?  The reason why I ask this because I want to make sure if it's still within the SOL or not.  I don't want to provoke them too much since I am planning to pay them off soon anyway.   

[RobertEG]

While credit reports will often not provide the reported DOFD, that does not mean that the DOFD was not reported.

FCRA 623(a)(5) requires a debt collector to report the DOFD on the OC account to the CRA no later than 90 days after they have reported their collection, so it will be of record in your credit file.  REports from annualcreditreport.com or directly from the CRA will normally show the reported DOFD.

However, most consumers do not fully understand either the definition of a DOFD or how it is used to determine the credit report exclusion date.  Thus, most credit reports will provide a more consumer-friendly statement of the expected exclusion date rather than providing the DOFD and then leaving it to the consumer to figure out the exclusion date.

FCRA 605(c) requires exclusion of a collection no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD, but that does not preclude the CRAs from excluding a bit earlier.  In fact, the CRAs routinely exclude at approx 7 years from the DOFD, and then base their stated exclusion date based on DOFD plus 7 years.  Thus, subtract 7 years from the estimated exclusion date, and that will usually be the reported DOFD.

In the posted scenario, the DOFD is likely between 12/2011 and 2/2012.

In most cases, the begin of the state SOL period will be the same as the DOFD, as in most cases, the SOL period begins on the date that the consumer first defaulted, and thus is the date of an asserted cause of action.