How is this fair about credit reporting?

Question

Okay, no one ever said life was fair. But, I fail to understand the reasoning as to why a bad account stays on your credit file for (at least) seven years from the "date of last activity".

For example, say you had an account that fell into collections in 2000; you would think it would fall off your credit report in 2007. But, say you took untill 2007 to pay the darned thing off. Now, the "date of last activity" on the account is 2007, so now the account will stay on your credit report as a negative for another 7 years...untill 2014. That's a total of 14 years for one negative account!

How is this fair to the consumer? That's 14 years to have a lower credit score, credit denials, higher interest rates, constantly having to explain the account should you apply for credit, etc.

Why don't bad accounts just fall off after having first been reported as a negative? Why is the date of last activity so important? Where's the incentive to actually pay the bill?

Answer 1

there is no law that says the account must be deleted after any amount of time. usually it only happens as the information on the account fills up and the credit reporting agency must purge their files. if you pay off the account it will show up as a paid account. you have the right to put an explaination as to the resolution in the file so that when a creditor pulls your file they can read your side. becasue of the fair lending laws credit reporting has become more complicated and unfair to good people that have had something bad happen to them. it is fair credit reporting but only to the lender. congress has buckled under the pressure of the big banks. laws today allow the big corporations to file bankruptcy and eliminate their debt totally. as a private citizen you can only file a chapter 13, which will ruin your credit, and you still have to make payments until the debts are paid off.

Answer 2

No, it does not work that way for an account that has been charged off and placed for collections.

If the account you are talking about has been "charged off and placed in collections" - it can only be reported for 7 years from the first time you became 30 days late and never brought the account current.

Listing any longer on your credit reports is re-aging and a violation

Go to the first link I've added and do some reading in:
6. Reporting Delinquencies -- Section 623(a)(5).



Dispute with the credit bureaus that the account is an obsolete account when you are within a few months of the 7 year mark.
If it is showing reporting errors, dispute those errors. If they do not correct the errors in the legal time limit they must delete.

You might also want to do some reading in the second link I've added. Start in the newbie forum and then in the credit forum. Learn your rights and how to use them. Learn how to deal with collectors and credit bureaus.

Answer 3

I know this SUCKS !!! We are going throught this too !!
Our Bank just totally SCREWED us saying that we bounced our account 5 times - SO not true !!! We only bounced it once but they are saying 5 times & have yet to proove that really -but are holding are account in pending to report - If we dont pay it off by Dec our credit is damaged for 7 years !! And it was their mistake in the first place- the ATM's have been giving false ammounts because vendors take out more money than you spent to make sure you have enough to cover your bill - I saw this on the news - This may be what happened to you - then the banks dont put that money back by mistake - They have been robbing us blind !!!
& now are threatening our credit from their MISTAKE !!!
I will never use another ATM card again !!!

Answer 4

You can contact the company that the money was owed to and have them let the collection agency know, which should remove the bad credit for that. If you are making payements still though, you may be able to get them to do the same if you are showing that you are in the process of paying them. Good luck with this!

Answer 5

It gives any company that wants to extend you credit a long term history of your financial background.

However, if you do have an account that went delinquent, but you paid the debt, you can write the company and ask them to have it removed from your report. You have to be persistent, but it can be done.

It took me 16 letters, and a few dozen phone calls, but it happened.

Answer 6

No, they blew smoke up your butt. they are no longer required to checklist something on your credit checklist...it is how lots of a lie that replaced into. it is, even however, a contravention of their settlement with the credit bureaus to eliminate valid debt suggestions...even yet it has no longer something to do with the honest credit Reporting act. it is merely as much as the creditor, on what to checklist vs no longer checklist. even however, maximum do stick to the letter of the settlement.

Answer 7

There is none. If you are going to be screwed for 14 years you may as well keep your money. Take a cruise. Unless you want to buy a house or a car then you are really screwed.
Dont you love it when they call and act like you owe them the money.

Answer 8

Your incentive to pay off the bill is to be an honest person.

Answer 9

Your first comment was best: "Whoever said life was fair." GET THE IDEA OF "FAIR" O-U-T O-F Y-O-U-R M-I-ND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's not just a saying you quoted above!! IT'S A FACT, SO GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW, let me show you my example of how "fair" doesn't play into things. I was trying to get an apartment in Colombus, Ohio about 7 years ago, and I had NEVER heard of anyone running a credit check on you AND CHARGING YOU $50.00 to do it as you applied to rent an apartment from them!! Now, I had no doubt that I had PERFECT CREDIT!! I knew I did because I always paid all my bills on time or before so, BUT, I kept hearing from all the property managers that I was denied an apartment or duplex or whatever rental property BECAUSE OF BAD CREDIT REPORT!! I couldn't believe that, so I kept going from apartment complex to apartment complex, paying $50.00 per credit check, to have them all come back "BAD CREDIT HISTORY". I was getting LIVID, and finally I decided to call the damn credit reporting people and ask just why and how in hell I could have a bad credit history. That just wasn't possible!! Now, get this . . . and I hope you're sitting down for this one . . . The woman told me that I got a bad credit history because one time, only a month or two before all this, I had failed to pay a month's rent on some apartment I rented back in Texas. . . BUT, I OWNED MY OWN HOME AND WASN'T RENTING!!!!!!!!!!! So, she checked out the details on the "bad credit moment"(kinda like a bad Kodak moment!!), and guess what it was about! The woman who I was about to marry had a son in college, and he and his friends got in an argument over who was responsible for the last month's rent, and somehow left the apartment without paying the rent, and it ended up on MY credit history, and he didn't even have my last name, and never would and never has, and I wasn't even married to his mother yet, but somehow, and you can figure how if you want to cause I never have been able to, MY LAST NAME ended up on this bad credit incident, and had, on that date in Colombus, Ohio, cost me $250.00 for 5 credit checks that said I had bad credit!!! Did I want to kill that "kid"??!!!! You damn right I did!! Have I ever liked that "kid"??!!!! You damn right I haven't!!! But, as I explained the situation to the woman at the credit reporting place, she understood and expunged that bad credit stuff from my record. But I still had to pay the $250.00 for those "bad credit history" reports that those god-forsaken idiots in Ohio wanted as I applied to rent a place from them. You can bet I told my soon-to-be-wife about it all, and she better damn well told her son about it, and how FURIOUS I was about it. Now we've been married 12 and a half very good years, and I still don't like her youngest son. And guess what he does for a living!! He's a legalized, official DRUG PUSHER, as he works for some big pharmaceutical company making big bucks as an entry level "representative" with his own company car. Of course that's not what he got his college degree in, but he was, and is, to damn whimpy to WORK FOR A LIVING!!!! So much for a "drug free America"!! And guess what I did for a major part of my professional life. I was a alcohol and drug counselor for 20+ years, and now I have a son-in-law who's a "drug pusher"!! Oh, yeah. He's legal since he makes big money as a "pharmaceutical representative". So, is life fair?? GET REAL!!! Oh, and God Bless you. I know it's tough, but you MUST NEVER put "fair" in any of your thoughts. It's a self-defeating philosophy. God Bless you.