I'll begin with a little history: The derogatory in question is a paid collection that originated in 2014. The amount in question was originally due in April of that year, so it was 30 days overdue in May, 60 days overdue in June and 90 days overdue in July. My account was send to collection in September and I paid the amount in full in October. Thus, my DOFD is somewhere in between April and October of 2014.
I obtained my free credit report from TransUnion and - glory be - look what they included in my credit report:
Apparently, TransUnion thinks my DOFD was April, 2014 - the date the amount was originally due. I'll ask them about EE in October (i.e., 3 months from now.)
Alas, Equifax and Experian are not as forthcoming. To begin, both of them claim that they aren't able to display my free annual report online. I'll have to write to both of them. Pity.
I looked back through old credit reports, and guess what I found in my Equifax report from 2016:
So far, it seems that 2 of the 3 big CRAs are treating the date on which the amount was originally due as my DOFD. I'll also be asking Equifax about an EE come October.
This is what my Experian report from 2019 looks like:
Those are the only two dates showing for this account, aside from the date the account was first opened. And here's the calendar:
It certainly looks like Experian thinks my DOFD is October, 2014 ... but the other two CRAs clearly think it's April, 2014.
In summary:
1) Thanks for sticking with me through all of this. I meant what I said about the gold standard.
2) Two of the big three CRAs seem to think that my derog will drop off my credit report in April of 2021 - roughly 9 months from now. And who knows, maybe earlier with EE.
3) Experian seems determined not to let me know when my credit report will lose the derog. Will Experian go along with the other two? Maybe yes, maybe no. On the other hand, if two of the major CRAs will let me have my formerly superb FICO score back in 9 months or less, that's good enough for me.
Again, thank you.