Any FAQ's on how to dispute a derogatory statement on credit report?

[Anonymous]

MrSpock wrote:

That's what I thought as well, but even though the collection is from 1999, the reporting date to the credit bureau is 20003?  Also, several people have told me that the "7-year" rule only applies to items that have been paid. Thus if an item is not paid off, the company can continue to report the item against your credit report every few years to keep it from falling-off.  Is this true?

The important date is DOFD, Date Of First Delinquency. It's generally the date when the account went 120 days late.

For more info about dates.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=8713

If this went to collection in 1999, then the DOFD must be 1999 or earlier.

7 year reporting rule applies whether it's paid, unpaid, or partially paid. 7.5 years from DOFD, and it must be off your reports. Period. Does not matter if you begin paying it AFTER it drops from your CRs. It cannot be reported.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=2689

Call the CRAs, ask them what the DOFD is, and while ya got 'em there on the phone, dispute it as too old to be reported.

[Tuscani]

Did you bring the account current in 2003? There is one exception if you did. The date which controls the seven year reporting interval is techically called DOFCD - date of first continuous delinquency after which the account was never again current while it was open and usable. 

Example:
First 30 day late was January 1999, then the acct was current for 4 yrs.
The acct went delinquent again in Jan 2003 and was never current again.

The date which matters is Jan 2001. The January 1999 late should have aged off from your credit report after January 2006. Even prior to when that (1/2006) aged off, it was no longer controlling the TL's seven years because the account had been paid up sufficiently to become current again after that point.

For a charged-off account, the window maximum is 180 days (which represents the time period up to the latest date by which it had to be charged off if still in default) plus seven years. However, in practice just a flat seven years is when the CRA's age it off; they don't normally hold out for that extra half year.