after 7 yrs items drop off, right?

[jwhit012]

i have accounts on my report that are older then 7 years old. only a few months over 7 yrs , nevertheless its still more then 7yrs old. I was under the impression that after 7yrs, accounts are null and don't exist.Most are paid accounts and i one point were in collection. how do i get them off or will they eventually come off?

[Lian]

No, accounts do not "drop off" after any prescribed period of time.

FCRA 605(a) is the provision of the FCRA dealing with what is usually called "drop-off dates." Many feel that this requires deletion of information from a consumer's credit file, but that is not the way it works.

Section 605(a) is a prohibition that applies to credit reporting agencies, not to furnishers of information to a CRA, and has nothing to do with reporting of information to a CRA, or with actual "deletion" of anything. Section 605(a) sets forth certain, common adverse items of information that are typically reported to CRAs, and appear in consumer credit reports. What this section specifies is that after certain dates, the identified items of adverse information can no longer be included by a CRA in any credit report they issue after their relevant date. They "drop off" from continued inclusion in your CR, but remain in your credit file. They are essentially blocked from view by those requesting your CR. When it is stated that they are a bar against credit "reporting," that refers to reporting of information in your credit file by a CRA to others, and does not refer to reporting by creditors and debt collectors to a CRA. They can continue to report after those dates, however their reporting is "screened" by preventing the CRA from providing that information to others.

When the prescribed date has expired for an adverse item of information (the CRA monitors those dates), only that adverse information is thereafter blocked from credit report inclusion. All other account information remains, unless the party who reported the information requests its deletion. Prior monthly delinquencies on an OC account are excluded from further inclusion in your CR after 7 years from their date of occurrence, and charge-offs and collections are excluded after 7 years plus 180 days from your date of first default, without thereafter becoming current on the OC account, preceding the reporting of the charge-off or collection. Other information pertaining to the OC account continues to be indeclinable in your CR. Account deletion is not mandated by expiration of the CR exclusion dates (except for collections, which are not per se accounts of a consumer).