So I was chatting with my loan officer today and he mentioned something about how derogatory information which is older than seven years is still part of my credit report and credit history. How can this be, I wondered aloud, when the item has fallen off my credit report because of its advanced age? He pulled up a copy of my report that the credit union had on file from January. There are items on it which are no longer on the report as of May because the reporting date is more than seven years ago. Doesn’t matter, he says, it’s still part of the credit report and credit history.
This makes no sense to me, so I want confirmation from knowledgable Dopers that I am in fact smarter than my banker. If an item comes off a credit report because it is older than seven years (note I am not going into the exceptions to the seven year rule) and a credit report is requested by a potential creditor, as far as the credit bureau and the potential new creditor is concerned, that derogatory item doesn’t exist, yes?
And as sort of a general tangential question, what right or ability, if any, does a debt collector have to re-report derogatory information after the seven year period is up: if the debt is not satisfied; if the debt is settled for less than the full amount; if the debt is paid in full?
Although the seven year period may be up, old items may remain on your credit report due to errors. In order to remove these, you can dispute the item with the credit bureau in question. All disputes must, by law, be investigated, and if it turns out that the mark is more than seven years old, it will be deleted. You can usually dispute stuff right through the credit bureau’s website.
Nope, no, nope …can’t report over 7 years any derog (or from date it went sour and led to write off or coll.).
You can have an account that was opened in 1978, has a derog from 1999 on that account…sure that is fine. The limit is on the derog.
Collection accounts: from the date it went to collection, no more than 7 years past that. If the coll agency reports the wrong date, then that’s the issue.
Credit Bureaus delete info just before the derog is 7 years old.
Paying it does NOT extend the date…it is still tracked from date tit went sour.
Some Bankruptcies can and will linger til 10 yrs (public record only)
No a bunch of others will chime in and confuse the issue.
Philster, just to clarify (and to comment that “tit went sour” was the funniest freakiest typo ever), say an account gets reported to credit bureau January 1996. January 2003 it falls off the report because of the age. The creditor is going through its files in June 2003 and finds this old debt. The creditor may not report that debt again to the credit bureau, correct? As far as potential creditors and the credit bureaus are concerned, the information does not exist and never existed.
friedo, none of the information in question has any component of error. I cleaned up the multiple errors on my report several years ago.
The fact that the credit union has a file on you is the problem. Your credit report may not show the stuff that has dropped off, but, I don’t believe the credit union has to ignore whatever data they may already have on you just because they pull a new report.
At this point, I’d say if you’re looking for a new loan, you’re better off going someplace new that doesn’t have any history on you.
No…May not report the old derog…if the derog is from Jan 1996, they can’t pop it on their now. Yep - data never existed, for all intents/purposes. Happens all the time. Bureueas delete tons of info monthly as it ages. Pretty automatic. Collection agencies are better now, but the bastards were terrible and used to create new derog dates. Much better, and unlikely to happen (possible, but unlikely, unless they have the wrong date unknowingly that it went sour originally with original creditor)
