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When Does the 7 Years End?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

When Does the 7 Years End?

I've got only one derogatory - a late payment of less than $100. It will drop off my credit reports after 7 years. Here's my problem: I can't find out when the 7 year period ends. It's not at all clear from my credit reports when the seven year period began and when it will end.

 

You would not believe how hard it is to get this information from CRAs. Once you finally jump through all their hoops to identify yourself to their satisfaction, it turns out that the only thing CRAs know how to do is file a dispute. I'm not disputing anything, I just want to know what date the item will fall off my credit report. Why is that so hard?

 

Any advice on how I can get this information? I'm not interested in "it will probably drop off on ..." For planning purposes, I need to have a date. Somebody at a CRA must know how to find the exact date.

Message 1 of 12
11 REPLIES 11
Brian_Earl_Spilner
Credit Mentor

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?

Up to 7.5 years from the date of your delinquency.

 

EDIT: sorry, that's for a derogatory account that's been charged off. 7 years from the date of your delinquency.

    
Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?

(Hey, that's a nice looking banner.)

 

I know that it's "7 years from the date of your delinquency." Everyone knows that. But go figure out what date a CRA determined to be "the date of your delinquency." CRAs use different terminology and show different months on my credit reports. It would really be helpful, when I'm thinking of buying a car or re-negotiating my mortgage, to know what date, or at least what month, this deragatory is going to fall off my credit reports.

 

No committee has to meet to make this decision. It's a simple mathematical calculation: date X  plus 7 years = date Y. How can I find out what date X or date Y is? I don't understand why this is so hard for a CRA. I'm not asking them for secret or proprietary information. I've called CRAs so many times. All they'll tell me is '7 years from your delinquency' but they won't tell me when they consider my delinquency to have occurred.

Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?


@Anonymous wrote:

(Hey, that's a nice looking banner.)

 

I know that it's "7 years from the date of your delinquency." Everyone knows that. But go figure out what date a CRA determined to be "the date of your delinquency." CRAs use different terminology and show different months on my credit reports. It would really be helpful, when I'm thinking of buying a car or re-negotiating my mortgage, to know what date, or at least what month, this deragatory is going to fall off my credit reports.

 

No committee has to meet to make this decision. It's a simple mathematical calculation: date X  plus 7 years = date Y. How can I find out what date X or date Y is? I don't understand why this is so hard for a CRA. I'm not asking them for secret or proprietary information. I've called CRAs so many times. All they'll tell me is '7 years from your delinquency' but they won't tell me when they consider my delinquency to have occurred.


I think this is a great question. I think what you are looking for is reasonable but hard to answer for some of these reasons:

 

- it seems that CRAs either use exact dates OR use the month in question

 

- the "date" for which the 7 years is based, is the DOFD= Date Of First Delinquency. This is the date that is first reported delinquent. From that date (or month), seven years must transpire before it is automatically deleted

 

- you may ask for an EE: early exclusion. You ask the CRAs to drop the notation early and it depends on the agency: I think TU is 6 months, and I forgot the others. 

- you may write a GW letter to the creditor to remove the notation. 

any of those interventions may cause a change in the 7 year rule I guess. Some CRAs add a date dropped notation to let you know when it goes away (I think equifax?)

Message 4 of 12
Brian_Earl_Spilner
Credit Mentor

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?


@Anonymous wrote:

(Hey, that's a nice looking banner.)

 

I know that it's "7 years from the date of your delinquency." Everyone knows that. But go figure out what date a CRA determined to be "the date of your delinquency." CRAs use different terminology and show different months on my credit reports. It would really be helpful, when I'm thinking of buying a car or re-negotiating my mortgage, to know what date, or at least what month, this deragatory is going to fall off my credit reports.

 

No committee has to meet to make this decision. It's a simple mathematical calculation: date X  plus 7 years = date Y. How can I find out what date X or date Y is? I don't understand why this is so hard for a CRA. I'm not asking them for secret or proprietary information. I've called CRAs so many times. All they'll tell me is '7 years from your delinquency' but they won't tell me when they consider my delinquency to have occurred.


Well, if your due date was 7/23/20xx, and the payment was late, that's your DoFD. The reporting to the bureau of the delinquency is simply stating you're at least 30 days late.

    
Message 5 of 12
Brian_Earl_Spilner
Credit Mentor

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?


@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

(Hey, that's a nice looking banner.)

 

I know that it's "7 years from the date of your delinquency." Everyone knows that. But go figure out what date a CRA determined to be "the date of your delinquency." CRAs use different terminology and show different months on my credit reports. It would really be helpful, when I'm thinking of buying a car or re-negotiating my mortgage, to know what date, or at least what month, this deragatory is going to fall off my credit reports.

 

No committee has to meet to make this decision. It's a simple mathematical calculation: date X  plus 7 years = date Y. How can I find out what date X or date Y is? I don't understand why this is so hard for a CRA. I'm not asking them for secret or proprietary information. I've called CRAs so many times. All they'll tell me is '7 years from your delinquency' but they won't tell me when they consider my delinquency to have occurred.


I think this is a great question. I think what you are looking for is reasonable but hard to answer for some of these reasons:

 

- it seems that CRAs either use exact dates OR use the month in question

 

- the "date" for which the 7 years is based, is the DOFD= Date Of First Delinquency. This is the date that is first reported delinquent. From that date (or month), seven years must transpire before it is automatically deleted

 

- you may ask for an EE: early exclusion. You ask the CRAs to drop the notation early and it depends on the agency: I think TU is 6 months, and I forgot the others. 

- you may write a GW letter to the creditor to remove the notation. 

any of those interventions may cause a change in the 7 year rule I guess. Some CRAs add a date dropped notation to let you know when it goes away (I think equifax?)


How a bureau decides on a date to exclude it doesn't change the date. If a bureau decides the 1st of the month is fine rather than the actual date, that's just a bonus. Like you said EE can be used to make it a moot point, though I wouldn't do an EE on EQ. Just let it age off naturally.

    
Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?


@Anonymous wrote:

the "date" for which the 7 years is based, is the DOFD= Date Of First Delinquency. This is the date that is first reported delinquent. From that date (or month), seven years must transpire before it is automatically deleted

Agreed - but when is my DOFD? Is it the day on which the original charge was due? the first day after the creditor's grace period? the first day I was reported to the collection agency? the first day the amount was charged off? or something else altogether?

 

In any case, it doesn't matter what "I" figure my DOFD to be. The only date that matters is what the CRA considers my DOFD to be. And that, apparently, is a big secret

 

None of my credit reports have a caption for DOFD, and when I look at what captions they do show (other than the date the account was first opened) and the little charts they include, the months are different for each CRA.

 

I'm sure you understand my situation: As things currently are, once I think my derog should be gone, I have to start ordering my credit reports every month until I actually see that it's gone. This makes it very difficult to plan in advance for financial decisions whose outcome depends on my credit score. And without knowing my DOFD, I can't ask about EE. And all this because no one at the CRAs will tell me what month my derog will come off. This is crazy!

 

I consider the myFICO Community to be the gold standard of credit-related community forums, and I appreciate everyone's replies. It doesn't seem like there's something special that I don't know about that will get me the information I need. If that's the case, I'll have to keep on calling the CRAs until I'm lucky enough to get someone on the line who will tell me when this derog will drop.

Message 7 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?

Contact the creditor and ask them what month you were late.  During the call I would simply tell them you are willing to go on autopay if they remove the 30 day (worked for me one time).  Is it a credit card or loan?  Either way if you have the money possibly see if they are willing to dump it if you pay it in full.  I would also suggest writing a "goodwill" letter explaining that you are "never" late..... Not sure if you have or not but if you haven't I would write this.


@Anonymous wrote:

I've got only one derogatory - a late payment of less than $100. It will drop off my credit reports after 7 years. Here's my problem: I can't find out when the 7 year period ends. It's not at all clear from my credit reports when the seven year period began and when it will end.

 

You would not believe how hard it is to get this information from CRAs. Once you finally jump through all their hoops to identify yourself to their satisfaction, it turns out that the only thing CRAs know how to do is file a dispute. I'm not disputing anything, I just want to know what date the item will fall off my credit report. Why is that so hard?

 

Any advice on how I can get this information? I'm not interested in "it will probably drop off on ..." For planning purposes, I need to have a date. Somebody at a CRA must know how to find the exact date.


 

Message 8 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?

Generally speaking you should be able to go to any credit report and hit the drop down box and generally always it will show when the account was open, the standing ie: "current" below that should be a bunch of months and years showing "ok" or in "green" if paid on time.  If you see anything with an "x" or "red" that would be when it was late.  No one can tell you the exact date of when it will drop.  For example if your payment was supposed to be July 1, 2020 and you missed it by more than 30 days, it's obviously likely it will be there till June 1, 2027 to July 1, 2027 or possibly earlier. 

Message 9 of 12
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: When Does the 7 Years End?

Exclusion of a collection or charge off is fixed by statute as being no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date you first became delinquent and thereafter remained delinquent up to the charge-off or collection. FCRA 605(c).

 

The date of beginning of account delinquency is the day after the set billing due date.  It is not the date that the delinquency first becomes reportable to a CRA, which is 30 days after the billing due date/date of initial delinquency.

DOFD is thus at least 30 days before the first reported 30-late.

 

However, since a creditor is not required to initially report a 30-late in the very first month in which it does become 30-late, and they often choose to delay initial reporting of derogs for various reasons, you cannot determine the legal DOFD based on the payment history profile by looking at the reported 30-late month/year.  It could be earlier.....

The CRAs thus do not use reported payment history profile to guess/establish the DOFD.  They use the explicitly reported DOFD as required under the stautue.

 

To that end, the FCRA includes a separate section (FCRA 623(a)(5)) which requires the creditor or debt collector to separately and expressly report the DOFD to the CRA no later than 90 days after having reported their collection or charge-off.

That separate and distinctly reported DOFD is then stored by the CRA in its own reporting code called the FCRA Compliance Date/Date of First Delinquency.   That reported DOFD is what the CRA then uses to calculate and exclude any reported collection of charge-off, as required under FCRA 605(c).

 

However, to complicate matters for the consumer, most commercial credit reports arbitrarily choose not to include the separately reported DOFD in their reports.  They assume that most consumers dont know or understand the legal definition of a DOFD, and thus to include it would lead to consumer confusion.  As an alternate, they usually choose to provide the month/year that the ultimate exclusion is expected to occur, which is usually 7 years from the reported DOFD (even though they actually have up to 7 years plus 180 days to exclude).

A more complete credit report will usually show the actual, reported DOFD in your file, such as the reports obtained from annualcreditreport.com or directly from the CRA.

Message 10 of 12
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