collection account

[Anonymous]

I am in the process of cleaning up my credit report in order to purchase my first home. One of my debts in collections is from a medical bill from 2011 but was not reported to the credit agencies until April of 2014. I just found the orginial itemized invoices from 2011. I also found a letter from a debt collector "Account Recovery Services" dated 7/18/11 for $280.00. I am assuming the debt was sold and the current collector is Capital Accounts. My current balance is reported as $982. I understand that there was aquired interest overtime and that is most likely why my balance is so high. I did set up payment arrangements with them years ago (I am honestly not sure when) so I am not sure if that restarted the clock in April of 2014? I stopped making payments after they took the money out of my account twice and overdrafted my account which they admitted fault but then refused to process a refund. I was very upset and have not paid anything since. According to credit karma I have paid 0% of my collection amount. My first question is does the SOL begin when they first report the debt in 2014 or by the original collections letter date in 2011? I have no letters from Capital Accounts. Also, am I able to contact them and request a copy of the activity of my account? Should I just dispute this?

[RobertEG]

There are two separate and totally distinct periods that apply to unpaid debt.

The credit reporting period for a reported collection is no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of your first delinquency (DOFD) on the original account.  The CRAs will normally exclude at approx 7 years.

The exclusion of a collection from your credit report applies regardless of whether the debt is paid, remains unpaid, or any payment plan was in existence.  Credit report exclusion is a date-certain period/date that is based ONLY on the time since the DOFD.

It is never reset.

A separate period, referred to as the statute of limitations (SOL), governs the  period within which an owner must initiate civil action if they seek a court judgment ordering payment of the debt.  The SOL varies in length depending upon your state statute, and may or may not have reset provisions.

In th posted scenario, payments may, depending upon your state SOL statute, have reset the SOL period, but they would have no effect on credit report exclusion of the reported collection.

If you first heard from a debt collector in mid-2011, the DOFD was likely in early 2011 or sometime prior, which means the collection will become excluded any day now.