Collection dates vary between bureaus

[Anonymous]

I have medical bills that I let go to Collection. The medical bill was incurred in August 2015 with the hospital. MyFICO report from 2/27/17 under negative factors lists "recent collection" and for TU and Experian it says 13 months and for Equifax it says 18 months. When look in the detail it was first reported 1/14/16 for all 3 credit bureaus so it looks like the TU and Experian are usingthat date; whereas Equifax is using the date I incurred the medical expenses.  I independently pulled my credit report and TU says it is estimated to fall off 7/2022 but doesnt show the first delinqunecy date (but that fall off date conincides with the older age of 18 months). When i pull Equifax it doesn't list a "fall off date" but shows the date of first delinquency of August 1, 2015.

Just trying to understand this and what the date should be and why the MYFICO would have that time since recent collection different between the three bureaus.

Thanks!

[RobertEG]

The open date reported by a debt collector has NO effect on its exclusion date.

CRAs permit the date opened to reported as the date that they received collection authority, or the date they first report to the CRA.

It is not used in determining credit report exclusion, and can vary between the CRAs.

All debt collectors are required to report the actual DOFD on the OC account to the CRA no later than 90 days after reporting of their collection.

The DOFD, and the DOFD alone, is then used by the CRA to calculate the credit report exclusion date, and must be in your credit file.

Most credit reports do not show the actual reported DOFD, as they assume that most consumers do not understand what a DOFD is, and how to then determine the exclusion date of the collection.  They thus provide an estimated exclusion date rather than the actual DOFD.

Their estimated date cannot be later than 7 years plus 180 days from the reported DOFD, and is usually calculated as 7 years from DOFD.

You can, if you suspect the reported DOFD is not accurate, usually obtain the actual DOFD by ordering your report from annualcreditreport.com, or directly from the CRA.

[Anonymous]

Thanks RobertEG. So the "Most Recent Collection" age that MYFICO is showing on my report for "Negative Factors" I would assume is based on the DOFD and I would believe should be consistent across bureaus. I know that as they age they impact you less so I am trying to understand why the "age" would be different between bureaus.

[RobertEG]

No, the recency of a reported collection is not based on the DOFD.

It is based on when the debt collector reported or updated with the CRA.

The FICO model does consider when the collection was reported, as it is a positive stattement by the debt collector that the debt is and remains delinquent up to that date.

If a debt collector is making regular monthly updates, that effectively keeps the score depressed by considering the delinquency to be extended to the new update.

However, dates reported do not affect the ultimate exclusion of the collection from your credit report.

Updated reporting affects scoring, but does not efffect credit report exclusion.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Robert. That answer cleared up a lot of my confusion. I think my error was assuming that MYFICO was using DOFD to calculate "recent collection age".  The age used for scoring is different than the length the item can stay on your report. I wasn't grasping that earlier.  I have paid this debt in July 2016 (which I know doesn't change anything scorewise) but I am hoping that Collection agency will not continue to update since I am no longer delinquent so it will continue to age and have less of an impact until it falls off.