Continued inclusion of a charge-off or collection in your credit report is clearly fixed under FCRA 605(c) as being based on ONLY ONE DATE-CERTAIN, and that is the DOFD on the OC account. After 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD, the CRA can no longer include the CO or CA in your CR, except for the rare circumstances set forth in FCRA 605(b).
All of this is dependent upon the entry of a proper DOFD in your credit file, upon which the CRA can then calculate the CRTP.
Entry of DOFD into your credit file is mandated under FCRA 623(a)(5). Since the DOFD is based entirely upon your account activity with the OC, the statute attempts to put the burden on obtaining the DOFD directly on the OC. But this is not always possible. Debt collectors can, and do, under certain circumstances, report your DOFD to a CRA.
If the OC has previously reported the CO or collection referral to a CRA, then they are on the hook to provide the DOFD to the CRA. Under FCRA 623(a)(5)(A)(i), if the OC has furnished information to a CRA regarding a CO or collection referral, they MUST, within 90-days of such reporting, provide the DOFD on their account to the CRA. The debt collector, as a "furnisher of information" to a CRA, can also report DOFD, but if the OC has reported a DOFD, then FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(i) MANDATES that any date reported by the debt collector MUST be the same as the date reported by the OC.
However, that does not include the situation where the OC never reported their CO or collection referral to a CRA. Some OCs don’t report anything to a CRA.
In such a situation, FCRA 623(a)(5)(B) kicks in, in an attempt to get the DOFD from the debt collector. Under FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(ii), the debt collector,as a furhisher of information to the CRA in the form of their collection account, is bound by the provisions of FCRA 623(a)(5) to get a DOFD into your credit file. If no OC reporting exists, then the debt collector is required to first contact the OC, and using “reasonable procedures,” attempt to get the DOFD directly from the OC. However, such a procedure is obviously fraught with the potential for abuse. How does one tell if the OC was contacted, or if “reasonable procedures” were used in an attempt to get the DOFD? Nevertheless, that is the way the statute reads.
As a last-line attempt to get a DOFD into your credit file, the backup procedure set forth in FCRA 623(a)(5)(B)(iii) kicks in. If the debt collector, after following “reasonable procedures,” is unable to get the DOFD from the OC, then they are permitted to report a DOFD of any date that precedes the date of the OC’s referral of collection to them. That will rarely, if ever, be the actual DOFD, but is a permissible guess by the debt collector.
