topic Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion? in Rebuilding Your Credit

How thorough is credit report exclusion?

RobertEG — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:49:44 GMT

I have a basic question that perhaps others can answer from their experiences… How does credit report exclusion REALLY work?

As background to explain my question, FCRA 605(a) states that “no consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing any of the following items of information..”, and then goes on to define the period of required exclusion for various adverse items. The most usual items are monthly delinquencies after 7 years from their date of occurrence, and charge-offs or collections after 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD on the OC account.

Consider a charge-off. The charge-off itself is reported under a specific code, and there is little question that the CO reporting per se must be excluded after 7/180.

However, the CO is also recorded under monthly Payment History Profile, and the amount of the initial CO is recorded under its own code. Do the CRAs scour credit files, and also exclude all related information pertaining to the CO?

It becomes even dicier when the adverse item is a collection. Again, little question that the actual collection reported by the debt collector is excluded after 7/180, but what about other reporting, such as that of a referral for collection by an OC, or a later credit inquiry by the debt collector after expiration of the 7/180 statutory period?

Reporting of a prior collection referral by an OC, coupled with showing of a balance on the OC account, does not take rocket science to determine the account was “placed for collection,” which section 605(a)(4) specifically excludes from credit reports. Additioally, the Payment History Profile includes such info on the OC account, apart from the actual reporting by the debt collector.

Do the CRAs go back and also exclude any such reportings? If so, what do they then report as the current status on the OC account if the last reported status was a referral for collection, and how do they modify the payment history profile? How thorough is their actual “exclusion”?

Finally, if a debt collector makes an inquiry for a consumer credit report after expiration of the CR exclusion period, they only have permissible purpose to do so if they have active collection authority. Thus, any appearance of an inquiry by a debt collector after expiration of the exclusion period would seem to be direct notification to others reading the CR that the account is under collection. Do they exclude such inquiries (i.e., code them as soft pulls so that they are not seen by others)?

I would be interested in what others see when such items become “excluded.”

Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:13:43 GMT

Just speaking for myself.

My COs were totally excluded at a little over 7 years. The entire TL, no just the CO annotation.

Same thing with the collections, they were all totally excluded around the same time frame.

Not to say that these are not still in my credit file but they no longer exist on my CR.

Every inquiry I have had by a CA has been a HP. These include those for collections, unpaid, that were excluded from my report.

Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:15:03 GMT

@RobertEG wrote:

Finally, if a debt collector makes an inquiry for a consumer credit report after expiration of the CR exclusion period, they only have permissible purpose to do so if they have active collection authority. Thus, any appearance of an inquiry by a debt collector after expiration of the exclusion period would seem to be direct notification to others reading the CR that the account is under collection. Do they exclude such inquiries (i.e., code them as soft pulls so that they are not seen by others)?

I'd actually like to contact an attorney for the specifics on this one. You replied to a post of mine a few weeks ago about this very issue and I still wonder. On 4/4/13 a CA did a HP my CR. They have PP to collect on the debt BUT the debt is from 2005 so it is no longer on my CR. So IMO they should not be allowed to HP. Because anyone checking my CR will see that Dynamic Recovery Solutions did a HP this month.

Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion?

DaBears — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:32:15 GMT

Every collection I had on my credit report was a soft pull from the CA. I was just on the phone with TU the other day asking certain questions. One of the questions was answered by a nice lady from Ohio, THANK GOD!!!! She told me once the TL is deleted from your credit report there is no file they keep within there system I also asked my consumer attorney the same thing and he said there is no such thing as a credit file only a consumer credit report.

HOWEVER the confusion comes into play. As of right now I'm working on getting a pre-approval for a mortgage and when I asked the LO do they just pull my credit report and credit file he came back and said what is a credit file? I said OH. I thought you pull my credit report and credit file. He said never heard of it and we base everything off what's on your credit report. I know me and Guiness had a discussion about this I am still confused about it.

I certainly don't want to pass on misleading information to others. I did ask a friend of mine who is 28 yrs in the Army and he did say the GOV will pull everything about a person including unpaid debt which I am still confused on lol. So somewhere out there the GOV has info about us pertaining to EVERYTHING. I dunno I gave up looking months ago....My head still hurts.

Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:53:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@RobertEG wrote:

Finally, if a debt collector makes an inquiry for a consumer credit report after expiration of the CR exclusion period, they only have permissible purpose to do so if they have active collection authority. Thus, any appearance of an inquiry by a debt collector after expiration of the exclusion period would seem to be direct notification to others reading the CR that the account is under collection. Do they exclude such inquiries (i.e., code them as soft pulls so that they are not seen by others)?

I'd actually like to contact an attorney for the specifics on this one. You replied to a post of mine a few weeks ago about this very issue and I still wonder. On 4/4/13 a CA did a HP my CR. They have PP to collect on the debt BUT the debt is from 2005 so it is no longer on my CR. So IMO they should not be allowed to HP. Because anyone checking my CR will see that Dynamic Recovery Solutions did a HP this month.

I read an FTC opinion that stated if the CRTP and SOL on a debt had expired that a creditor and/or collection agency did not have permission to pull your report at all. I will try to find it.

Re: How thorough is credit report exclusion?

RobertEG — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:26:14 GMT

There's a substantial difference between a credti file and a credit report. Credit files are anything reported to a CRA. Credit reports are only a summary of what the vendor of the report chooses to include or is legally permitted to view.

They contains tons of info not included in credit reports, such as personal idenfifiers, account type codes, furnisher business type, ECOA codes, dispute status codes, statements of permissible purpose, the name of any furnisher, records of soft inquiries, copies of identity theft reports, requests to opt out, Payment Rating code, records of derogs excluded from normal credit reports, monthly account balances, etc., etc.............

Many commercial credit reports omit even the basics, such as reported DOFDs. Information excluded by statute from being shown in a credit repot still remains in the consumer's credit file.