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Something is wrong if the debt is truly that old, and it is appearing in your credit report.
Since it is a collection, that "something" is the DOFD on the OC account.
The absolute statutory provision is that the CRA is prohibited from including any collection in any credit report they issue once a period of 7 years plus 180 days has expired from the DOFD on the OC account. Thus, if it is showing in your CR, one of two things is amiss. Either the debt collector reported a DOFD to the CRA that is less than 7 years plus 180 days ago, or the CRA is in blanket violation of the CR exclusion provision.
Any party, including a debt collector, is required to report the DOFD on the OC account to the CRA within 90 days of reporting any information pertaining to a collection or charge-off. How they get and report that DOFD is detailed in FCRA 623(a)(5).
You thus need to know the DOFD that was reported. If it is not shown in your credit report, you can request it directly from the CRA, who is required under section 609(a)(1) to provide a consumer any information of record in their credit file, contingent only on the consumer providing proof of their identity and the current processing fee, which is $11.00.
Once you have the DOFD, you can challenge its accuracy, or determine, if accurate, whether the CRA is at fault for continuing to include the collection beyond the max statutory period. General experience is that the CRAs are pretty meticulous about CR exclusion, so most often improper inclusion results from the debt collector having reported an incorrect DOFD.
DoFD can only be changed IF you brought the account current, the got behind again.
Thank you to everyone who responded. I pulled my free annual reports last july that is July 2012. So I can't get them for free until July. And btw, this RJMDVD was not on any of my reports last July. I have a printed copy so I just took a look at them and this debt was not on there. I knew this already because I have been checking CreditKarma and it just appeared there in the last 2 weeks or so. I know it is an old account. I remember doing the CD club and even a cookbook club because I did those for awhile. If I did the DVD club at all it would have been 7 - 10 years ago. Probably around 2003. I do not even remember having this account so I know for sure that I did not bring it current and default again at a later date. I'm definitely going to send DV. I'm just tired of this.
Another question- What is the 7 year mark exactly? They can only add to your report within that timeline or once it's on your report it stays for 7 years? Or both?
The 7 years plus 180 days starts from the Date of First Delinquency. That is the time you missed your first payment and never brought the account current again.
Items cannot stay any longer than the 7.5 years from the DoFD and can be added at any time until that date.
So I sent DV letter. cmrrr. I have confirmation that it was received but I have not heard anything yet. I signed up for a free trial of a credit monitoring service to pull my report. This zombie is reporting my account as having been opened 11/2012 and the last reported deliqency as 3/2013.