Experian CR Error: How to Proceed?

[LegalTender]

My only open CC is Discover dating from 2000 with a (lowered in 2012) CL of $500. I receive Discover’s FICO score  with my monthly statement (based on Transunion) which now shows a FICO of 649. 

Just this week I signed up for Creditscore.com (which uses Experian) to gain another read on my FICO score: it reports a FICO score of 570. That’s 79 points lower!

I went back into my most recent Experian CR from Oct. 2018 and found an error. An AmEx CC Charge Off is listed as “on record until Jul 2025.”

However the DOFD was in 2012 and both Transunion and Equifax CRs (both from April 2019) state that it will remain on record until July 2019. In fact, a recent collection letter from AmEX states “We must inform you that the law limits how long a debt can be reported to a a consumer reporting agency. Because of the age of your debt, we cannot report it to a consumer reporting agency.” So to the best of my knowledge this negative tradeline should already be removed from all my CRs. The 79 point lower FICO score from Creditscore.com could be due to Experian mistakenly still reporting the negative AmEx tradeline (i.e. until 2025!). 

How do I proceed? I’ve used up my free annual CR option.

Am I entitled to another free CR from Experian based on the error? How best to dispute this and without creating any other damage or negative info on my CR? 

Thanks a bunch for any tips.

[RobertEG]

The exclusion of a charge-off is, per FCRA 605(c), required to occur no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency.

The creditor is required, per FCRA 623(a)(5), to provide the date of first delinquency to the CRA no later than 90 days after their first reporting of a charge-off.   The CRA then uses that reported DOFD to determine the exclusion of the charge-off.

If you feel that the DOFD was more than 7 years plus 180 days ago and the CO remains in your credit report, the procedure is to then determine what DOFD is of record in your file.  

If the reported DOFD is inaccurate, then the recourse is to dispute the accuracy of the DOFD reported by the creditor.

However, if the reported DOFD is accurate and is more than 7 years plus 180 days ago, then lack of exclusion is the fault of the CRA, not the creditor, and the basis for dispute would then be lack of CRA compliance with FCRA 605(c).

The key is thus to first obtain the DOFD that is of record in your file.

The statement by a CRA that a derog will remain of record until date X is usually determined by the CRA by adding 7 years to the reported DOFD that is of record.  Thus, the CRA statement implies a reported DOFD of July 2018.

I would still, however, obtain a copy of your credit report directly from the CRA that shows the actual reported DOFD.

If you no longer have a freebie remaining from annualcreditreport.com, that will cost you........

[LegalTender]

 RobertEG, Thanks a bunch for the great explanation.

I just now reviewed a new Experian CR and AmEx is nowhere listed and so that negative tradeline appears to have correctly aged off. The CR error from the 2018 must have self corrected. 

Now I have to search for another reason why the Experiean generated FICO is 79 points lower than the Transunion generated FICO. 

[Medic981]

I am shooting in the dark here, however, residents of Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont also have the right to receive an additional free credit report as mandated by their respective state law. 

That is one free credit report every two months! So if you are lucky enough to live in one of these seven enlightened credit conscious states, you have one more weapon in your credit management arsenal.