There is no direct violation of the FCRA due to any party reporting to a CRA beyond any period of time. They can theoretically report forever.
But they must report accurately.
What FCRA 605(a) says is that for each of the items of information listed, it is the CRA who is prohibited from incuding the reported information in any credit report they issue after those dates. They are not reporting date limitations placed on creditors. So inclsuion of such a collection in your CR after such a long period of time is, in fact, a violation of FCRA 605(a) by the CRA, and not the debt collector.
To enforce this, the CRA has to know the accurate DOFD on the OC account in order to determine whether inclusion in your CR is permissible. That is covered by FCRA 623(a)(5), which is there solely to provide a DOFD to the CRAs that they need to calculate credit reporting fall off dates.
So it may not be reporting due to fault of the CRA, but rather as a result of faulty reporting of DOFD by the debt collector.
The DOFD gets into your credit file by the provision of FCRA 623(a)(5)(B). This involves a three-step process.
IF the OC originally reported a DOFD to the CRA, then the debt collector is required, under FCRA 623(5)(B)(i) to report that same date.
If the OC did not rprevioulsy report to the CRA, then, under FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(ii), they have to follow "reasonable procedures to obtain the date of delinquency from the creditor."
If the OC did not previously report to the CRA, and they have exercised "reasonable procedures" to obtain that date from the creditor, but were unsuccessful, then FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(iii) kicks in. Under this circumstance, they are them requried to take "reasonable procedures to ensure the date reported as the date of delinquency precedes the date on which the account is placed for collection, charged to profit or loss, or subjected to any similar action, and reports such date to the credit reportring agency."
This last scenario is probably what they will argue.
Note that "date placed for collection" is NOT the date the debt collector reported a CA to the CRA. Is is the date they were referred collection authority by the OC.
How would I address this mess?
First, I would file a direct dispute with the CA under FCRA 623(a)(8) and 16 CFR 660.4. In this dispute, I wou8d not dispute the legality of the CRA including the CA in your CR. What I would dispute is the accuracy of the DOFD that they have reported to the CRA. That, of course, is a dispute of their reporrting to the CRA under apparent viioltion of the accurate DOFD date provisions of FCRA 623(a)(5)(B), subsections (ii) and (iii). Ask then for disclousre of compliance with the "reasonable procedures" used to determine the DOFD from the OC. Ask them if the the OC responded to their request. Ask then for the date that the OC "placed the account into collection" with them. Their DOFD cant precede that. Finally, ask them the date of delinquency that they reported to the CRA.
Second, you have the total right to requrie the CRA to disclose to you any item of information that has been reported to your credit file. FCRA 609(a)(1).
You can thus, independent of what the CA may tell you, get the actual DOFD that they reported to the CRA.
Thus, also file with the CRA a request under FCRA 609(a)(1), all information in your credit file reported to them under the required provisions of FCRA 623(a)(5).
The CRAs record this date in their credit files as the "FCRA Compliance Date/Date of First Delinquency," so throw that designtion of what ytou are seeking in for clarity.
They must comply, However, such a requrest to the CRA requires payment of a processing fee to them, under FCRA 612(f) which is currently $10.50. So include a check payable to the CRA in that amount when requesting the disclosure of this information.
That will give you avenues for securing compliance with FCRA 605(a), both by mandatory responses from the debt collector and by the CRA.
I would hold off on the filing of formal complaints with your state AG or with the FTC until you know the party at fault for this prohibited reporting.
I would strongly guess that the culprit is inaccurate reporting of DOFD by the debt collector to the CRA.
