Verizon or Equifax got it wrong :-(

[Anonymous]

I disputed some information that was being reported on my equifax cr by Verizon. Verizon stated that in May 2008 there was a charge off on my account and that due to the charge off, there was a loss to the company.

This information was innaccurate. I still had my Verizon service through Oct. 2008 when I closed the account. I didn't pay my bill in October or November but I received a bill in November with a December due date. I just so happened to check my credit report in December and saw that Verizon was reporting that my account was charged off in May. I immediately logged into my Verizon account, paid the Dec. bill, and called Verizon to dispute the information that they were reporting. I didn't (and still don't) understand how they can send me a regular bill, give me a due date for that bill, and charge off the account before the due date on the bill.

So, two weeks ago I disputed Verizon's claim that the balance that was paid was at a loss to them. I paid my regular bill in full so even though Verizon claims they charged the account off they still directly received all of their money from me.

Verizon updated my Equifax cr. They took away the baddies, so instead of showing the 30 days late marks for Oct. and Nov, it says "Ok" and now it also states that the account was charged off March 2013.

I was ok with the fact that this bad mark would be on my cr for 10 years, at least before this dispute I was 4 years into that 10 years. Now with this change, I have to start all over???

I tried to immediately dispute this updated information but Equifax said that I would have to file the dispute via mail with any documents that support my claim. I'm going to call Verizon tomorrow and hopefully they can correct this without me have to go through Equifax.

[RobertEG]

In order to do a charge-off, the basis requirements are that (1) the account is delinquent at the time they choose to take that accounting measure, and (2) there is some basis for their conclusion that the consumer is unlikely to pay the debt... that it has become, in their view, "uncollectible."

So the issue is whether, at the time they did the CO, the account was delinquent.  If delinquent in May, the fact of ultimate payment in Nov/Dec would be irrelevant to a business determination they made back in May.

The date they chose to report their CO  is essentially irrelevant to credit report exclusion.  CR exclusion of a CO is based only on the DOFD that preceded their taking of that accounting action.  If they did a charge-off in May, it was then delinquent to the degree that it had, in their opinion, become uncollectible, meaning the DOFD must necessarily have occure far prior to May.

Once reporting a charge-off, the creditor is required to report the specific DOFD that preceded that charge-off to the CRA within 90 days of their reporting of the CO.

That is the date you need to get.