Closing out old baddies, revisited

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

I know this topic has been discussed at length on here, but I'm still not clear about the best way to handle my problem.

I have an old credit card account that was closed, derogatory, in 2007. The SOL in my state is 4 years. So, shortly before the 4 years was up in 2011, they sent me a regular statement. It showed my CL and some available credit. There was fine print down at the bottom that said the account was closed, but I didn't see that until much later--I just saw available credit. I just didn't know, so I kinda thought, wth, is this account still open, is there a chance to rehabilitate it? So I made payments. I would've kept paying, but after a few months they stopped sending the statements. Then a few more months later, I got a CO letter from them.

The SOL has run, a second time. They never pursued the debt beyond those few statements in 2011. No CA. It's just sitting there on my credit report, under their name, dragging my scores down until 2018.

Here's question 1. How can I tell when this should roll off? There are several dates on the credit report I'm viewing, and it's not clear. Shouldn't it have rolled off in 2014, 7 years after it was first closed derogatory? Did my payments four years later extend the reporting period? If so, is it worth disputing, since their statement was semi-misleading?

Question 2: I'm going to assume for now that I did reset the reporting period, so this is the more typical question about how to get this account off my record. I would like to pay this debt, first because I owe it, and second because I would like to have a relationship with this company in the future. But I do not want to again reset its reporting time by paying it, beyond the 2018 date it currently seems set to roll off.

Question 3: Should I write a PFD to this creditor (Chase) and pay up now? How receptive are they to PFDs, especially with old debts they clearly don't expect to recoup? They are not currently reporting. There's no record of 30/60/90 or even showing a payment grid; there's only an old (legally uncollectible) CO to be deleted, so there should not be a concern about manipulating data. But I don't even know, does an offer to pay constitute activity all by itself, that could extend the reporting period?

Alternatively, what about waiting till it rolls off to pay? Would that option initiate a whole new entry and start the process all over again?

I just don't know the best way to handle this. Any advice appreciated.

RobertEG · ‎07-19-2016

There are two separate and distinct periods to consider.

Credit report exclusion, an expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing civil action.

Credit report exclusion of a charged-off account is based on one and only one date certain.

The CO must be excluded from your credit report no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of your first delinquency (DOFD) on the OC account.

Any payments made on the debt that do not return the debt to pays as agreed, good standing are immaterial to credit report exclusion, and do NOT reset the running of the exclusion period.

If the account was delinquent back in 2007 and remained delinquent untl they charged-off the debt (even if payments were made), the DOFD would remain sometime in 2007 or prior. That is more than 7 years plus 180 days ago, so the charge-off shuld already be excluded.

If your credit report is still showing the charge-off and states an expected exclusion date sometime in 2018, that implies a reported DOFD of sometime in 2011.

You would only have a new DOFD of sometime in 2011 if the payments you made were suffcicient, at some point, to bring the accunt back into a non-delinquency status.

Did you ever pay enough to bring the account back into good-standing?

If not, you have an issue with the accuracy of the reported DOFD of sometime in 2011.......

Anonymous · ‎07-19-2016

Thanks, Robert. I took another look at my reports on here, and I see that all three bureaus are showing activity in 2011. There is no charge-off date or date of first delinquency given. Very interesting how the only history is 2011-2013. Makes it look as if nothing ever happened except in 2011. Apparently, they just re-aged the account at that time, which they're not supposed to do.

I may still have old reports and statements that show when it was closed. If I do have proof, then if I understand you correctly, my 2011 activity can be ignored. That should be enough for a dispute on the basis of age.

If the dispute is successful, that will take care of my other questions. I can stop worrying about my score and just get the debt off my conscience. I'll report back here with results. Thanks very much for your help.

RobertEG · ‎07-19-2016

If you have account records showing that the account was delinquent from the time of a collection or charge-off back to a certain date, that is evidence to contest a reported DOFD.

You can file a dispute with the CRA contesting the accuracy of the reported DOFD.

You only need to show a DOFD that is more than 7 years plus 180 days ago in order to compel exclusion of any charge-off or collection that has been reported on the debt.

The key issue appears to be whether any payments made in 2010/2011 were adequate to have returned the account to good standing.

A new DOFD would then only be proper if the account again had a new first delinquency after being returned to good-standing.

Anonymous · ‎07-20-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks, Robert. I took another look at my reports on here, and I see that all three bureaus are showing activity in 2011. There is no charge-off date or date of first delinquency given. Very interesting how the only history is 2011-2013. Makes it look as if nothing ever happened except in 2011. Apparently, they just re-aged the account at that time, which they're not supposed to do.

I may still have old reports and statements that show when it was closed. If I do have proof, then if I understand you correctly, my 2011 activity can be ignored. That should be enough for a dispute on the basis of age.

If the dispute is successful, that will take care of my other questions. I can stop worrying about my score and just get the debt off my conscience. I'll report back here with results. Thanks very much for your help.

You will not see the DoFD on any online monitoring sites. They ALL strip that data out. To see it, you need to pull your free reports from annualcreditreport.com - the EQ report will show the reported DoFD, while TU and EX will show an esimated drop date.

Anonymous · ‎07-20-2016

Oh, I wondered why DofFD wasn't showing up. I'm using Experian, here, and sometimes CreditKarma to see reports. Guess if I want ALL the information, I'll have to pull at annualcreditreport.com. Thank you for the tip.