Santander will it ever go away???

[disney2]

I have only one bad account on EX and TU (a couple others that I'm working on with EQ too) and would love for it to go away.  I bought a car and had some late payments on it.  It was with someone else until a couple months before it was paid off when Santander got it.  I paid it off in 2014 and Santander is showing on my report that they had it the whole 4 years.  Any ideas?

[RobertEG]

As I understand the scenario, Santander obtained the debt as a debt collector and reported a collection just before it was paid.

What I dont understand is how they are reporting that they "had it the full 4 years."

A debt collector, when reporting their collection, provides an open date for the collection, which is distinguished from the open date on the original account with the OC.  The reportable open date for their collection is the date they received collection authority.

Are you saying that the debt collector provided an open date for their collection that is the same as the open date on the OC account?

If so, you simply dispute the accuracy of that reporting, and obtain an investigation by the CRA, and hopefully, correction to the proper date opened of the collection.

[disney2]

Yes, it is showing I had the account with them for 4 years when it was really just a few months.  If I dispute it and they correct the date it was acquired, would that change the date it would fall off? I don't want it there a day longer than it has to be.  I'd prefer if they found it to be incorrect and took it off totally.

[RobertEG]

The exclusion date of their collection is determined solely by the reported DOFD.

FCRA 605(c) mandates exclusion no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the reported DOFD.  Date opened has no effect on credit report exclusion.

Unless they are reporting an inaccurate DOFD, then no, correction of the date they reported their collection as being Open will have no impact on the date of required exclusion of the collection.  It is always good to correct any inaccuracy in reporting, but the date opened of the collection is academic as to impact on scoring or credit report exclusion, and may not be worth the effort.