Under the FCRA, a collection must (normally) become excluded no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency that immediately preceded the reported collection. See FCRA 605(c) and FCRA 605(a)(4).
The CRAs regularly will provide their own early exclusion of collections at approx 7 years from the DOFD, without waiting the extra, permissible 180 days. The additonal 180 days from DOFD is legally provided under the statute only to cover the extreme situation where a collection is first reported very late in the 7 year period, and thus time is needed by the CRA to obtain the DOFD and calculate the mandatory exclusion date. In the vast majority of situations, collections are reported with more than 6 months before expiration of 7 years from the DOFD, providing the CRA with adequate processing time, and thus the CRAs will exclude at 7 years from the DOFD.
However, they are not in violation until the full 7 years plus 180 day period has expired.
As for whether removal is done by deletion or exclusion, the answer is exclusion.
Deletion is total removal of the collection from the consumer's credit file, while exclusion removes the collection from continued inclusion in credit reports issued by the CRA, but does not delete the collection from their files.
The distinction beween exclusion and deletion is best understood by reference to FCRA 605(b).
The credit report exclusion requirements of section 605(a) are not absolute, and in certain situations, as detailed in section 605(b), the exclusion provisions of section 605(a) are totally exempted, meaning any collection can still be included in a credit report that is requested under the exempted provisions set forth in section 605(b). The most common would be if a creditor requested a credit report with respect to a consumer initiated reques for credit in an amount of $150K or more. Such requests for full-file credit reports are very rare, but are providied for under the statute. If the CRA deleted at the exclusion date, they would no longer have the collection in their files, and thus could not include in any future credit reports......
