CA reporting wrong DOFD---UPDATE

[Anonymous]

I have been trying to figure out why this debt wasn't due to fall off my report until next year when I stopped paying the OC in May 2008, and today I called EX and they told me the DOFD was 6/2009 which is WRONG. She initiated a dispute for me stating that my DOFD should be 6/2008. They are adding an entire year to my debt reporting. My question is, what if the dispute doesn't work? Where do I go from here? The CA is Calvary Portfolio and the OC is Citifinancial for a personal loan I took out in late 2007. Would Citifinancial still have my payment records from 7 years ago? Should I call them? 

Onto a bit of good news, I got an old collection off my report today when I called! My report from March said a baddie was to fall off 5/2015 but was still on my report, the CRA said it wasn't to fall off till September according to her records, but she removed it today for me 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have been trying to figure out why this debt wasn't due to fall off my report until next year when I stopped paying the OC in May 2008, and today I called EX and they told me the DOFD was 6/2009 which is WRONG. She initiated a dispute for me stating that my DOFD should be 6/2008. They are adding an entire year to my debt reporting. My question is, what if the dispute doesn't work? Where do I go from here? The CA is Calvary Portfolio and the OC is Citifinancial for a personal loan I took out in late 2007. Would Citifinancial still have my payment records from 7 years ago? Should I call them? 

Onto a bit of good news, I got an old collection off my report today when I called! My report from March said a baddie was to fall off 5/2015 but was still on my report, the CRA said it wasn't to fall off till September according to her records, but she removed it today for me 

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CitiFin may still have records if you dont have the records in your files already. If they refuse to update a DoFD that you can prove is earlier then a CFPB complaint would be in order on the CA.

[Anonymous]

I went ahead and called OC and they have no records other than the CO date which was 12/29/09, not even a DOFD. This so frustrating. I know that I made absolutely NO payments in 2009 at all. I can pull up all my bank statements from 2008 and 2009 and there are no payments made to the OC past 5/20/08. The guy I spoke with told me to call the CA as they would have all the info....ugh I guess I have to concede that this will remain on my report for another year.....

[Anonymous]

Citi really dragged their feet on that one. They literally waited until the last possible minute to do the charge off - too long actually. If the last payment was 5/20, it would not have gone 30 days late until sometime in July, assuming the last payment was on time. They are required by law to charge off after 180 days of delinquency, so that charge off should have occurred at the beginning of 2009, not the end. They basically "carried" that account for the full year and did the charge off at the last possible minute to keep in in the same tax year. Sneaky bastages!

There is a clause in FCRA, that says if the CA does not get a DoFD on an account they can basically "swag" it. They counted back 6 months from the CO, which is a reasonable geuss on their part.

I'm geussing you don't have earlier Equifax credit reports showing Citi's reporting and their actual reported DoFD?

You could possibly file a 623 direct dispute with the CA, showing your bank records as proof of the last payment made.

[Anonymous]

Okay I went back through my bank records (thank god for online statements!) and did find ONE more payment on 10/28/08 that "caught up" my account (it was for $376.67). So I decided to go through ALL of 2009's and there were no additional payments made. Yes, they absolutely did drag their feet in CO my account and your estimate of 6 months prior to the CO date is probably what they did. If I write a letter to the CA requesting payment history, would they have that? Also, CitiFi told me they charged off te account in the amount of $6,406.91, but the CA is reporting that I owe $7,659. Is that legal?

[Anonymous]

Even with that payment, they still dragged their feet for about 6 months past where they were legally obligated to charge it off.

Yeah, its normal for the CA to tack on interest and fees.

[Anonymous]

Can I DV Calvary and request they prove the DOFD via payment history? The guy I spoke with at CitiFin seemed to lead me in the direction that Calvary should have all that information. Do you know if that's true? This is so frustrating...I was hoping to buy a house by the end of summer thinking this debt should already be gone and now IDK if that will happen. 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Can I DV Calvary and request they prove the DOFD via payment history? The guy I spoke with at CitiFin seemed to lead me in the direction that Calvary should have all that information. Do you know if that's true? This is so frustrating...I was hoping to buy a house by the end of summer thinking this debt should already be gone and now IDK if that will happen. 

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A DV is a request to validate a debt so it would not be the instrument to use to request the DoFD you would want to do a Section 623 direct dispute to the CA for that.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Direct-dispute/td-p/2309095

You will most likely still have to disclose it if the mortgage app asks if there is any other unpaid debts not listed on your report. Failure to disclose would be fraud and if they choose to do a full factual report they are going to see it. Even though its excluded by law at a certain point its not gone from your file typically until it passes 10 years when the CRAs will most likely clean house. I think I would be negotiating a PFD and not be challenging their reporting, challenging most likely will put them in an adversarial stance and any goodwill they may have might evaporate.

[RobertEG]

The bible on the procedure that the debt collector must follow in obtaining and reporting the DOFD is set forth in FCRA 623(a)(5).

It is a multi-step process that requires the debt collector to obtain and report the DOFD no later than 90 days after reporting their collection.

The DOFD occured under the OC account, and thus section 623(a)(5) sets forth steps to obtain that date from the OC.

The first step permits them to "obtain" the DOFD from any prior credit reporting that was made by the OC of their determiantion of the DOFD.

If the OC previously reported the DOFD, the debt collector can simply assume that date is correct, and report that date without any need to contact the OC.

The second step applies when the OC has not placed of record in the consumer's file their determination of the DOFD on their account.

In that situation,the debt collector is required to contact the OC and make reasonable atetmpts to obtain the DOFD from them.

Howeer, the OC is not obligated to respond to the debt collector.

If the debt collector has made reasonable attempts to obtain the DOFD from the OC and were unsucessful, as is apparently the case in the posted scenario,then then they must still report a DOFD, so the FCRA fallback provision is that the debt collector can then make their best guess as to the DOFD, but in no case can they report a DOFD that was later than the date they obtained their collection authority, such as by purchase of the debt.

Section 623(a)(5) thus clearly deals with the situation where the OC does not or cannot provide a firm DOFD.

It appears that the best info obtainable from the OC is that they charged-off the debt in 12/2009.

That, by definition, requires that the DOFD mustt have preceded that date.

Thus, the debt collector would be able to legitimately make their best determination provided that their determiation is no laater than either the date of the CO or the date they received their collection authority.

[Anonymous]

RobertEG, I really wish I understood what you meant by your post. Are you implying that a 623 wouldn't work in my favor?

I'm trying to figure out how a 623 works and a lot of what I'm reading says that it should go to the OC? The OC has already informed me that they have no records of my account except for a charge off date & amount. If I send a 623 to the CA, how do they verify that their information is correct? Is that grounds for removal?