Is This Account Re-Aged?

Paul-

Thanks so much for the great seminar and building me a special access login for a different day than the Saturday seminar. I really appreciate it!

I have a question for you—

I received a copy of my reports and found I have 3 charged off credit card accounts which have been illegally re-aged. A, B and C show dates of 4/06, 4/04 and 2/06, respectively, on accounts that have had NO activity since 2001 or 2002.

I am wondering if I may ask one more thing—

I have entries which are past the 7 year mark– two referencing 8/98 and one referencing 4/99, which should be deleted, PLUS a tax lien which has been released but is showing unreleased.

Thanks very much, in advance, for your support.

All the best,
Nancy

—————————————–

Hello Nancy,

Good to hear from you!  I’m happy you enjoyed the seminar.  I’ll answer your questions in reverse order. 

>> PLUS a tax lien which has been released but is showing unreleased.

The CRA’s use contractors to obtain public records information so if you can provide a certified court copy of a release of that tax lien, then forward it to the CRA’s along with your dispute letter to update their records.  An unpaid tax lien can remain on a credit report indefinitely (CA residents limited to a ten year reporting).  A paid tax lien will remain seven years from date of satisfaction (NY residents limited to a five year reporting).  Your release from the court will list the operative date.

>> I have entries which are past the 7 year mark—two referencing 8/98 and one referencing 4/99, which should be deleted

It sounds like the 8/98 and 4/99 dates exceed the reporting limits of the FCRA although this depends on whether the 4/99 date is the Date of First Delinquency (DOFD) or the date the account was charged off.  Please review this article in which DOFD has the same definition as the “commencement of the delinquency”.

If the 4/99 date is the date the account was charged off or placed for collection then this date is beyond the seven-year reporting period and should be expunged.  If 4/99 is the DOFD then 10/06 would be the purge date.

>>I received a copy of my reports and found I have 3 charged off credit card accounts which have been illegally re-aged. A, B and C show dates of 4/06, 4/04 and 2/06, respectively, on accounts that have had NO activity since 2001 or 2002.

The previous post explained re-aging as it applied to obsolescence or the purge date.  Your question concerns re-aging from a different perspective.  If tradelines A, B, and C should accurately have DOFD’s of 2001-2002, then they are still within the statutory limits for reporting on your credit report; but, if tradelines A, B, and C are reporting a date more recent than the true DOFD to the CRA, then this could potentially have a negative effect on your credit score, and no one wants that.

The 2005 Credit Reporting Resource Guide (Metro 2 Manual) provides instructions for furnishers (creditors) who submit data to the CRA’s.  Section 4-17 of the Metro 2 Manual lists Base Segment Field 25 as the appropriate field for DOFD.  The Metro 2 Manual further explains in Exhibit 8 that the purpose of the date in Field 25 is to “be used by the consumer reporting agencies to determine when delinquent data is to be deleted, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act”.  Page six of the National Consumer Law Center’s comments submitted on May 22, 2006 (ftc.gov/os/comments/FACTA-furnishers/522110-00067.htm) regarding “Furnisher Accuracy Guidelines and Procedures” referred to the problem of debt collectors “placing an incorrect ‘date of last activity’ in the relevant field (Base Segment, Field 25) in the Metro 2 format”.  The National Consumer Law Center refers to this field as “extremely important as it sets the date for calculating the start of the obsolescence period under section 1681c of the FCRA”. 

The question is where does Field 25 show on your credit report? 

Equifax states on their website (as of the date of this post) that “accounts not paid as agreed remain on file for seven years from the date of last activity (DLA)”.  If DLA is the date that Equifax is using for determining obsolescence then it seems appropriate for Metro 2 data to populate DLA with the value for Field 25.  

Experian credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com have credit header fields for “Date of Status” and “Last Reported”.  Please note that these are two mutually exclusive fields.  As of the date of this post, the Experian’s Glossary of Credit Terms (Experian.com/consumer/glossary.html) lists the following definitions:

“Date of Status- On the credit report, date the creditor last reported information about the account

Last Reported – On the credit report, the date the creditor last reported information about the account”

Sounds very similar to me. 

At times, Experian tradelines from AnnualCreditReport.com appear to populate the “Date of Status” field with a value of six months after the DOFD.  If your Experian report lists a “Date of Status” more recent than six months after DOFD; then, you may have a problem.  The definition that Experian lists on their site for “Date of Status” seems to indicate that a dispute of that tradeline could update that field with today’s date.  In my opinion, such an action would have a damaging effect on your credit score.  

TransUnion’s website states “In most cases, accounts that contain adverse information may remain on your credit report for up to seven years from the date of first delinquency on the account”.  This appears to indicate the Metro Field 25 is stored as the account closing date.

Keep in mind that a furnisher may continue to report data to the CRA’s after the date of charge off or collection and that would result in a field on that tradeline having a date more recent than the event.  This could account for the 4/06, 4/04, and 2/06 dates.  However, within 90 days of reporting the charge off to the CRA, the furnisher is also required to report the DOFD and that date should be readily discernable by anyone that reads your report, including the Fair Isaac scoring model. 

Paul