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If you read some really, really, really old stuff about CR deletion of OCs and CAs, that is the way it worked prior to 1998. OCs and CAs were regularly resettiing the CRTP by reporting such things as payments, and other DOLAs. It was not fixed definaively to the DOFD.
Congress stepped in by amended the FCRA in 1998 by the addition of new section 605(c), which made it crystal clear that CO and CA deletions are calculated from one, and only one, date certain, and that is the DOFD on the OC account. Period. The period for the expration of credit report inclusion begins 180-days after the DOFD, and runs for 7 years thereafter. Stated differently, that is 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD.
The only way to extend the deletion period is to reset the DOFD. To also prevent this, congress enacted section 623(a)(5) to set down solid rules for reporting of a DOFD. While a somewhat contorted section of the FCRA, what it boils down to is that it is the date of first delinquency on the OC account, and while debt collectors can report a DOFD, all efforts are made in the subparagraphs of section 623(a)(5) to ensure that this date comes from the date of first delinquency on the OC account. It is not fail-proof, but covers most ways a debt collector can subvert reporting of the actual DOFD.
As an aside, for those curious about the possible legal loop-hole available to debt collectors to set a legal DOFD that is not the actual DOFD on the OC acccount, read on, but this scenario is very rare, and is far, far from the norm. It requries all of the follwing steps to have happened:
1. The OC would first, at the time they did a charge-off or collection referall, have never reported previusly to the CRA on their account. That would eliminate the first tool that the FCRA has to get the actual DOFD into your credit file, which is the requirement that a previously reporting OC must, within 90-days of doing eiither a CO or referring the account for collections, provide the DOFD to the CRA. FCRA 623(a)(5)(A). That reporting would, if required of the OC, have locked in the DOFD, because FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(i) goes on to then say that, if the OC has reported a DOFD,then any reporting of a DOFD by the debt collector MUST match that reporting.
2. So, if the OC was not requried to report a DOFD, and did not do so, then the obligation passes to the debt collector to get the DOFD, and to report it to the CRA. This contingency is set forth in FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(ii). Again, recognizing that the OC is the source data for any DOFD on their account, section 623(a)(5)(B)(i) requires the debt collectot to contact the OC, and, through "reasonable procedures," attempt to get the DOFD from them, and then supply it to the CRA. Any consurmer familiar with "reasonable procedures" on the part of a debt collector will immediately see the potential for abuse of this process, but nonetheless, that is how the statute reads.
How does one show that the debt collector made reasonable efforts to contact the OC and get the DOFD? Hmmmm...
3. Then it really gets legally dicy. The last ditch effort to get a reported DOFD is covered under FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(iii). It works like this. If the debt collector says they failed in their "reasonable procedures" to get a response from the OC, then they are legally permitted to report a "faux DOFD" (not the words of the statute, but mine).
They are then permitted to choose and report any date, as long as it "precedes the date of collection referral" to them. That will never be the true DOFD, but it legally beocmes the DOFD used by the CRAs.
Not the usual scenario, but only offered to complet the picture as to how a DOFD other than the actual DOFD can legally get into your credit file.
Remember, however, that jsut because a DOFD gets into your credt file does not mean that it is not disptutable. If you can show from your own account records that the reported DOFD is not the actual date of your first delinquency in the most recent chain of delinquencies on the OC account, you can dispute its accuracy.
