Date opened vs date of last activity vs date reported

[bakersfieldcredit]

I am a bit confused... I have a collection on my report that says:
Date reported: 02/11
Date of last activity: 10/05
Date opened: 02/07

Sent a PFD letter to OC, he would not respond, so I went to his office. He says bring back the merchandise, and pay $1500 collection and they will remove it... So he wants me to return the merchandise and pay for it in full as well. Not the best deal for me...I told him that's not fair, Ill pay or bring it back and pay a reduced amount, he would not agree to this and started yelling and said he will sue me. We are in California, isn't SOL 4 years? from what date? Please help me. Also when would this item "fall off"? I don't know what date is what and don't wanna get sued.

[bakersfieldcredit]

Ok...I screwed up... Same story but some changes:
Date reported: 02/11
Date of last activity: 01/09
Date opened: 03/09

Here is the corrected dates listed on my report above.
Also, the OC called me today and admitted that the account was delinquent in 2007 and he had waited 2 years to turn it over to collections. So this is technically off by 2 years then? Can I be sued still? What should I do? Everything will be based off DOLA correct? Also what do I do about him reporting it late? 2yrs btw...

[Hal Jordan]

What kind of debt is this for? Utility? Phone? Cable? Tool rental?

The SOL starts the moment the payment became over due. So if you were supposed to pay on 08/01/2007 but missed that payment that is the date the SOL begins from.

If they do sue you and you fight them they'll have to prove your last date of activity (IE last payment made). So if you haven't made a payment with them since the date you say then that should be the date the SOL will go by as thats the date it became delinquent.

Re-aging a debt is illegal and is a violation of the FDCPA. So if he tries to lie on your CR as to when the DLA was he will become liable or the CA will for violating the FDCPA which is a $1000 fine if you sue them. (which should give you some leverage)

WRT to falling off of your report it will be 7 years from the DLA. If they refuse to delete it.. Which sounds like if the OC screamed at you to get out of his office and that he is going to sue you he will probably not delete it.. lol

So give us a little more info. Type of debt. When was the actual date of last activity? Are you sure you haven't given them any money after that date? Do you have a printed copy of your CR so you can prove re-aging if it goes that far?

I wonder what they'll say if you can present a solid FDCPA violation case against them for $1000... They may just be delete it and let you go your way and they go theirs.

[bakersfieldcredit]

It was a debt for welding bottles, I had an account there, checked them out in 07', however my account was started in 05' and I never did make a payment in 07' when I checked them out....Also I offered to return the bottles...He says give em back and pay for them...So I tried to give them back and split the difference, he wont have it. I am trying to be fair about it and fix my credit as well...I do not have an invoice or an old credit report. He did admit that the account was started in 05', late in 07', and reported in 09'. So I dont know what to do...I just want this off my credit, or at least fix the date so it will fall off...

[bakersfieldcredit]

I started the account in 05' then was inactive till 07' when I checked the bottles out. I have never made a payment since 05'

[Hal Jordan]

That's an interesting one. Let me ask you this. WHen you got the bottles did you sign an agreement when you checked em out?

I'm fairly certain the date of last activity would be from the date the account become over due.

When I say copy of your credit report I don't mean an old one. I mean one right now that shows the incorrect date the account became over due. You can print the current one as evidence that they have been reporting the wrong date all along in effort to re-age the account in order to avoid the SOL and the date it will fall off of your credit reports.

I can honestly see both sides of this. He wants his bottles back and he feels like he's due payment on top of getting them back because it's been 3-4 years since he had them. He's pissed off about it. So in his anger and sense of entitlement he's become unreasonable and he's also resorted to deceiptful means to try and get what he feels he's entitled to.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. I can't imagine after he calms down that he's going to sue you now if he hasn't already. But who knows. You may have awoken a sleeping giant by going in there and trying to work out a deal.

So option number one is waiting for the SOL to expire before you do anything else. Which sounds pretty close (or may be up if it was before april of 2007).

Second option is to start preparing your lawsuit for FDCPA violation. Send a DV letter to the collection agency requesting the date the account went into default, the amount, interest and who the oc was. Ask for proof of statements or anything bearing your signature. At the DV level they don't have to provide that stuff. Only Name of the OC and the amount owed. But a lot of times if they have those proofs they'll send em to you.

You want to check and see what matches your CR and what doesn't. If they send you proof via your signature with that date in 2007 you have established that they are indeed re-aging the account to avoid the SOL expiring.

You could then file your law suit against the OC/CA for the fdcpa violation and write them their letter letting them know you have sued them and the only remedy is removal of all of their information from your credit reports yada yada yada... and go from there.

Or there of course is still another option. You can try the I want to work with you and want to avoid litegaion route. Draft up a letter referencing the incorrect dates and provide the specific section and statute of the FDCPA outlining their violation. Offer to return the bottles in exchange for considering the debt paid in full and offer to not sue them for the FDCPA violation if they agree to remove all listings from your report.

Again, I can see both sides. You didn't pay for em but he's being dishonest and commiting an illegal act by the way he's trying to collect on that debt.

And back to the printing off your current credit report so you can have proof in case they adjust the information and correct it and then file suit against you pretending like they've done nothing underhanded all along. You will want to be able to have proof to file your FDCPA violation suit if this is the case. Now if they do correct it it's a good thing because it puts you near or out of the SOL which removes all their teeth. And it puts you two years close to falling off of your report.

Now too.. with all this said. I am not a lawyer. I just have a sue happy family member who has done something similar to this but not exactly and was able to strong arm a bank into giving him what he wanted in a repossesion deal the bank violated some law on. He was totally in the wrong but because of an error on their part he would probably have won in a law suit against them and they gave in to his demands to avoid all of that.

[Lian]

When you received the merchandise, what were the terms of payment?

Was the OC to bill you? When did you thus become delinquent in payment?

That date is the significant first date.

Once the payment became delinquent, that single date defines your date of first delinquency. Apparently sometime in 2007. That DOFD could not be updated because you never became current on the account.

You have two considerations. The running of the SOL on the debt, and the running of the credit report exclusion period under FCRA 605(c) for continued inclusion of the collection in your credit report.

Credit report deletion is the easy one. The DOFD is caste in stone, and thus the collection can remain in your CR until 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD. Period.

The date of running of your SOL is not as concrete. SOL usually begins under most state SOL statutes as of the date of first delinquency, which would be the same DOFD. However, your SOL may not be caste in stone as is the fall-off date from your credit report. It depends upon your state SOL statute. While some states provide for reset of SOL due to payments, and some even permit reset of SOL based on firm offers to pay, I don't see, in your scenario, that either of these happened, so chances are that your date of running of the SOL begins with your DOFD.

Dates of later activity reported by a debt collector don't usually constitute illegal re-aging. They are entitled to report monthly to a CRA, as long as such reporting is accurate. Often, a DOLA is nothing more than a re-reporting of the past status. Reporting becomes illegal if and when the reporting updates the DOFD. Then it becomes a violation of FCRA 623(a)(5).

I dont see anything done by the debt collector that constitutes illegal re-aging. If you want to see whether the debt collector updated your DOFD, you can send a letter to the CRA under FCRA 609(a)(1), and request the DOFD that is of record in your credit file, and the name of the party who reported it.

[Lian]

To answer your original question:

DOLA (date of last activity)

The date that YOU last took some action or were required to take action action on the account. Payments and delinquencies are the most common. Creditors report all information in your credit file, but they do NOT directly report an item called DOLA. Your DOLA is determined by the CRA, and should be the last action posted to your CR that YOU took some action on the account. It could have been a timely payment prior to any delinquencies ever being reported, if that was YOUR last action on the account.

It could be a payment, before or after delinquencies. It could a dispute that you filed. DOFD is reported by the OC, and is not a DOLA. It may correspond to your DOLA, but your latest DOLA on an account is usually well after your first delinquency.

DOLA does not reset your DOFD.

DOLA can affect credit scoring, because the FICO algorithm looks at the the weighting of some items, such as a collection, based on your most current actions on an account. It may also, depending upon your state law, be an action on your part that could act to reset
your SOL, such as a payment. But later DOLAs cannot lengthen the period a collection can remain in your CR.

Date Opened.

For a collection reporting, this is the date that the debt collector was assigned collection authority by the OC. It is not the date the OC account was opened, and is not necessarily the date that the debt collector first reported to the CRA. It has no relevance to your DOFD.

DOFD

Your DOFD can change while the account is still open, but becomes frozen when the OC does either a CO of a collection referral. It is the date of the first delinquency in the most recent chain of delinquencies that immediately preceded the CO or collection referral.