What to do about RGS Financial??

Anonymous · ‎01-27-2016

These guys have added a collection to my Experian report for Cox Communications. It shows date opened 11/15. It dropped my score 20 points. I haven't had a Cox Communications account in 6 years or so, but they're adding this to my report and it's showing like I have just become delinquent. I have filed a dispute with Experian on 1/19/16 (the same day it hit my report) and it's still pending. Well I wake up today with an alert saying a new collections has been added to Experian. It's the same exact account, nothing changed, and it dropped my score another 6 points. It's like they just refreshed it or something. Experian still shows the dispute as pending. What exactly is RGS Financial doing, re-aging this debt??

Anonymous · ‎01-27-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
These guys have added a collection to my Experian report for Cox Communications. It shows date opened 11/15. It dropped my score 20 points. I haven't had a Cox Communications account in 6 years or so, but they're adding this to my report and it's showing like I have just become delinquent. I have filed a dispute with Experian on 1/19/16 (the same day it hit my report) and it's still pending. Well I wake up today with an alert saying a new collections has been added to Experian. It's the same exact account, nothing changed, and it dropped my score another 6 points. It's like they just refreshed it or something. Experian still shows the dispute as pending. What exactly is RGS Financial doing, re-aging this debt??

Monthly updating. Quite common and legal. Send a DV to RGS requesting DOFD, and OC original account information.

RobertEG · ‎01-27-2016

No,, reporting of a collection does not "re-age the debt."

The date opened of a collection is merely the date that they received collection authority. It does not reflect when the account became delinquent.

Whenever a cebt collector reports a collection, they are required per FCRA 623(a)(5) to separately and explicitly report the DOFD on the OC account that created the debt.

That DOFD is then used by the CRA to determine when the reported collection must be excluded from any credit report they issue.

The collection will become excluded no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the reported DOFD. The CRAs normally do the exclusion a bit earlier, at approx 7 years from DOFD.

What is the DOFD?

Anonymous · ‎01-27-2016

There is no DOFD listed that I can see. Just the "Opened" date and a "Status Updated" date, now reading 1/26/16. I don't understand why they reported it 1/1/16, then updated it on 1/26/16 when there doesn't seem to be any change to it at all. Also, I have one other collection that reports/updates every month and it never drops my score any lower after reporting. The only thing that appears changed on my new report that shows a 6 pt drop is that my credit balances have been paid down $1100 and this RGS Financial updating.

As I said earlier, I haven't had a Cox Communications account in about 6 years. So I know the DOFD can't be any earlier than 5 1/2-6 years ago. It bothers me because we're trying to be qualified for a mortgage in a few months and the other 3 collections I've known about and have planned for them. This one came out of the blue just this month. On top of the 20+ score drop it caused on Experian initially, it now appears to keep dropping my score every time it updates, which so far has happened seemingly at random.

Anonymous · ‎01-27-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
There is no DOFD listed that I can see. Just the "Opened" date and a "Status Updated" date, now reading 1/26/16. I don't understand why they reported it 1/1/16, then updated it on 1/26/16 when there doesn't seem to be any change to it at all. Also, I have one other collection that reports/updates every month and it never drops my score any lower after reporting. The only thing that appears changed on my new report that shows a 6 pt drop is that my credit balances have been paid down $1100 and this RGS Financial updating.

As I said earlier, I haven't had a Cox Communications account in about 6 years. So I know the DOFD can't be any earlier than 5 1/2-6 years ago. It bothers me because we're trying to be qualified for a mortgage in a few months and the other 3 collections I've known about and have planned for them. This one came out of the blue just this month. On top of the 20+ score drop it caused on Experian initially, it now appears to keep dropping my score every time it updates, which so far has happened seemingly at random.

Yes, frequent updating keeps the score pressure on. Again, its a common and legal tactic to get you to pay up. DoFD is not shown on any online reports sites. You have to pull your raw reports from annualcreditreport.com, or purchase a report directly from a CRA, and have it mailed to you, to see the DoFD/Removal Date of the item. You will also see it when doing online disputes.