6 year old debt showing as one month old! Help!

[Anonymous]

I have two old medical bills that just popped up on my equifax per credit karma and it has dropped my score 20 points! One bill is for $265 and the other is $375. They show the collection agency as Phoneix and it shows that the debt is one month old. I was pretty upset so I called Equifax and they told me the date of first delinquency was in July 2012 and that it would automatically fall off July 2019. I'm so upset I am shaking because I am hoping to buy my first home in May 2020 and I have been working like crazy to rebuild my credit and then I see a 20 point drop and what looks like a recent ding to my credit. Phoenix is new to me because before it was under a different name. What does this mean? Can an collection company sell my 6 year old debt to another company and them for it as new like it just happened? This doesn't seem fair or right at all. Equifax said it would fall off in 2019 but I can't help but worry because how is that possible if it's showing in credit karma as only one month old? Someone please tell me something because I am seriously upset enough I am shaking! I want to buy a home for me and my 3 year old before she starts school in 2020! I need to know for sure that these hospital bills aren't going to stay on my credit until July 2025 when they are from an emergency room visit in 2012!

[silver_idle]

It doesnt matter if a CA sells the debt or not because it will still fall off 7 years and 180 days from the first date of delinquency. When a CA sells a debt, they are required to remove any records they reported to prevent duplicates of the same debt. It may be showing up as one month old as in thats how long they been reporting, but that doesnt change the first date of delinquency, which is what the CRA goes by when it comes time for it to be excluded from your report. Since the SOL in many states are usually about 3 to 7 years, at the max 10, the SOL may have already expired for the debt so they cannot sue you for it, but they can still report though once the 7 years and 180 have passed, it will be excluded. You do have a couple of options though. You can send a DV to the CA to validate the debt, but only assuming the debt is valid, what you could do is offer a PFD. Paying the debt to have the record removed. If they agree you can pay it and once they pay, they should do what they agreed to do and that is to remove the item, though they arent obligated to remove it. You could wait until the beginning of next year to see if you can get early exclusion of the record. Most CRA allow for early exclusion when it is within the 3 to 6 months of it being excluded, and some have had luck with early exclusion but it can be a roller coaster. 

[RobertEG]

A creditor or debt collector can choose to sell its assets, of which ownership of a debt obligated to them is part of their assets, as they choose.

The reporting of a new collection on an old debt is not reported as a new (e.g., one month old) debt.

It is a newly reported collection on a debt that is old, with its delinquency period running all the way back to the date of your initial delinquency with the original creditor.  The serious score implication of the reported collection is thus not because it is a "new debt," it is just the opposite.

It is because they have added a collection that has a very long period of delinquency.

As for "fairness," just as the increase in reported monthly delinquency from, for example, 60 to 90 days late has increased negative scoring impact, an unpaid collection continues to increase in scoring impact as you continue to let the debt remain delinquent.

By paying the debt, the period of delinquency is terminated.

The good news is that the ultimate delinquency period has a statutory limit of no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD, after which it must become totally excluded from your credit report.