topic Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off? in Rebuilding Your Credit

When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:06:48 GMT

Been down this road before on this TL that only reports on EQ. According to my state's laws this should not be reporting because I was never in arrears. Date account shows on CR as opened is May 2005. Child support claims they never reported the account. It is not listed anywhere a a derogatory so when would it drop? 7 years 10 years Never?

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:11:38 GMT

Dunno - I'm completely over my head on this one. What category does it report as (judgment, collection, etc.)?

This might do better over on Rebuilding Your Credit. If you don't get much response here, holler, and one of us will move it for you.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:25:57 GMT

It reports as other. Disputed it last June came back verified in 1 day via E-Oscar I assume. I'm afraid to sir up a hornet's nest and watch it appear on all 3 bureaus. Pays as agreed. 0 balance 0 in arrears 0 past due. Nothing derog just reports as an Other account on EQ as Open. The open date and the last activity shows as May 2005 yet date of last activity shows as the dispute date of June 2007. Don't want to kick up any more dust with this just curious when it goes away. the age doesn't help since its only 3 years old anyway. Upon manual review for a mortgage when they pull all 3 bureaus I got some explaining to do.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:23:32 GMT

The reason they list it is to hurt your chances of getting a loan or credit, since the tradeline shows a certain amount due. It's a rather vindictive system.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:33:32 GMT

It shows nothing is due. I agree with the rest of what you said though.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:00:07 GMT

TheNewWorldMan wrote:
The reason they list it is to hurt your chances of getting a loan or credit, since the tradeline shows a certain amount due. It's a rather vindictive system.

NWM, I think I disagree with your viewpoint. One could look at it as punishment, but I think in reality it is an incentive to pay. It is done as a tactic to get you paid in full.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:30:21 GMT

The point of the thread was when the TL drops off. I can appreciate the vent but truth be told mine is reporting illegally since I never was in arrears. According to NJ law the account is only supposed to see the light of day if you are 1K or more in arrears. It never was and Eq is the only report it is on.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:40:51 GMT

An account won't stay on a report unless someone is continually updating it. So someone is sending this off every month like a good little bureaucrat.

I know you don't want to stir this up and have it start reporting on the others as well, but I'd worry that the stupid thing will report forever, or until the pencil-pusher who sends it in retires, or dies in their office chair and crumbles into dust.

Can you figure what the SOL is on this thing? If there is one? I just don't know anything about this, unfortunately.

We probably ought to move this over to Rebuilding. Let me know if you'd like me to. It's an odd enough topic that it doesn't really have its own obvious home.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

athensguy — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:34:30 GMT

An account won't stay on a report unless someone is continually updating it. So someone is sending this off every month like a good little bureaucrat.

I don't think that is true. You can see the last reported date on TC, for example.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:10:10 GMT

My bad, I thought it was continually updating... But still, my understanding is that the creditor (or whoever it is in this case) submits the info for X amount of years. I'm going to have to get my brain untangled.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:22:29 GMT

Date Reported 6/2007 Surprise the date I disputed
Date Last Payment 6/2007 Wrong
Date of Last Activity 5/2005 Date this Junk was Place on Report
Actual Payment Amount 0
This line, in addition to being place on report erroneously, is fraught with errors.

Message Edited by smallfry on 05-21-2008 07:22 PM

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:14:59 GMT

The very fact that it is on the CR hurts your score though....doesn't it? It's a matter of income to debt ratio.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:44:27 GMT

R8RDude wrote:
The very fact that it is on the CR hurts your score though....doesn't it? It's a matter of income to debt ratio.

Does it? It's not under collections, it's not under judgments, nothing owed. Maybe it's helping if you have short credit history?

I really have no clue. My ex and I don't do child support, thank goodness. We just split all costs 50/50, since that's how we share custody.

Good luck!

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:19:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The very fact that it is on the CR hurts your score though....doesn't it? It's a matter of income to debt ratio.

No it is not figured in the DTI ratio on Equifax' snappy new website. Funny thing is the schedules payment amount is $4390 and has been since it first appeared. My only concern and the reason I tried a dispute last year was that under manual review child support might be a consideration if I applied for a mortgage. I don't think it helps or hurts and the age of the tradeline is my average age at 3 years. The most aggravating part of the experience was my conversation with the child support rep who told me it was never reported to Equifax. Right EQ just pulled it out of their ---.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:52:13 GMT

Shameless bump. Does this tradeline have to be reported monthly by child support to remain on my Equifax report? Sure would like to get my hands on that character if it does. No ideas on this one huh?

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:19:43 GMT

I really would have thought that it would report as a "judgment" since that is how CS is usually instigated (by court order) ...

That being said, were you EVER in arrears? Did you EVER have it set to garnish your wages? And it could simply be that that is how the court itself reports it ... Virginia does it that way (at least, according to my ex, it does).

Edit: Ex had CS TL on his CRs initially ... 10 years after the judgment was in place and reported to the CRAs, it dropped off .. but then, VA SoL is 10 years for judgments. He's still in arrears, but it no longer reports for whatever reason.

I think the state you're in and the laws of that state are what's most important here ... check out the SoL on judgments reporting for your state.

Message Edited by Wonderin on 05-28-2008 08:19 PM

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

fused — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:35:43 GMT

It's my understanding that unpaid child support is suppose to report as a public record and not as a derog TL. Is yours reporting as a PR or derog TL?

Message Edited by fused on 05-28-2008 05:35 PM

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:15:38 GMT

First of all I was never in arrears. Secondly it has only ever reported on Equifax. It is listed in "Other Accounts" on the true Equifax hard copy report as well as EQ Credit Watch Gold what have you.
There is a notation in my child support history section on the state website for the May inclusion date. It states "credit bureau reporting cancelled". I called the child support rep and was told that they never reported this to any of the bureaus. I think what happened was someone reported it to EQ in error and stopped there.
There is no payment history viewable on the EQ reports and on the reseller reports only the May 2005 box is checked. I disputed it last year and the dispute date now shows as date of last activity. Came back verified via E-Oscar I would guess. I am afraid to dispute it again for fear it might get picked up by TU and EX.
It is not listed in either public records or judgments. They don't seem to know where to put it so it goes into the "other" basket. Pays as agreed. Scheduled payment zero last payment zero. Credit limit zero nothing negative.
I was told that the state will randomly pick cases to send to local authorities for review. Mine was obviously OK so that must be why I have the notation credit bureau reporting canceled on May 5 2005.
I don't want to send any paperwork to EQ from my local child support agency because that will in effect validate the child support tradeline. I got a nice Catch-22 on my hands.
Jersey state law states that a parent must be over $1000 in arrears before the case is reported to the Credit Bureaus.
At first I didn't think much of it when my EQ scores were basically in line with TU and EX but now my EQ is languishing at 706 with 2 inqs. while my TU is 731 and EX with 11 inqs is 717. When I started rebuilding 1 year ago my scores were EQ 682 TU 682 and EX 674. Now I am beginning to wonder if this TL is hurting my EQ score.
So its not a judgment or a public record. If this thing is considered positive in any way I could conceivably take it to the grave no?

Message Edited by smallfry on 05-29-2008 05:15 PM

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:20:19 GMT

I didn't mean to imply that you were in arrears, just telling you what happened with my ex (who pays CS ... sometimes). :/

A VA caseworker said that they ALWAYS report it ... once it's a judgment, they report it. Usually, as I think someone else said, under "Public Records," though I really remember his saying that it was under "judgments."

Anywho, I really didn't mean to imply that you were a deadbeat dad!!

BUT, I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to fall off within 10 years ... that's how long it took my ex's to fall off. All judgments (except in rarer cases) are supposed to fall off NLT 10 years.

Re: When Does Child Support Tradeline Drop Off?

smallfry — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:19:58 GMT

No offense taken.