Thread: DOFD Varies by CRA's, How can I verify exact date?

Hey all, and thanks in advance for reading through to help me out. I'm closing in in my seven year mark for mostly all of the negative items on my Credit Report (its a lot, I know). Today I was due for my annual report, so I received all three and am noticing some very conflicting information between them. Only EQU is actually listing the DOFD on the Credit Report, while EXP has no records at all. EXP *DOES* however list a date the item is 'scheduled' to fall off the report. They also list the
81 Month Payment history for items on the report.

My questions here are pretty basic. Shouldn't the DOFD for any OC on my CR have to be exactly the same between CRA's? It seems to me that irregardless of when it was reported to the CRA there is only one date in which I would have become
delinquent.

If that is the case, and the DOFD should NOT vary by CR, how do I get this corrected? I have read hear in the forums that under FCRA 609(a)(1) requesting the "FCRA Compliance Date/Date of First Delinquency" is possible via a letter. If I take this route, can I request the DOFD for all items on the CR or just one item per letter? (Since there's a fee for this, it would be nice to get everything at once).

Finally, assuming all three report back with different dates, can I use the CR from one CRA (with a date more benifitial to me) and submit it to another CRA to have them update their records?

I appreciate your help. :)

Yes, the DOFD should be the same. It should not vary by credit report, but you have to keep in mind that the credit bureaus might refer to the DOFD using different terms.

Anyway, the OC is the one that reports the DOFD. The CRA basically just lists what the OC reports. I would try to first get documentation from the OC proving when the actual DOFD was, and then you can use that to dispute through the CRAs if there is a discrepancy.

One thing that I've done in the past, is dispute the account on that SPECIFIC issue.

Don't provide 'evidence' yet.

If the OC verifies different DoFDs on multiple reports, send a second dispute of DoFD, citing that the furnisher is unreliable, and the account needs to be immediately deleted. Provide copies of the three tradeline reports with this dispute.

More than likely the CRA will "frivolous" the additional dispute, to which I send an exact copy of the same dispute again, citing Cushman v. TransUnion.

We hold that in order to fulfill its obligation under § 1681i(a) “a credit reporting agency may be required, in certain circumstances, to verify the accuracy of its initial source of information.”  Henson, 29 F.3d at 287.   We further hold that “[w]hether the credit reporting agency has a duty to go beyond the original source will depend” on a number of factors.  Id.  One of these is “whether the consumer has alerted the reporting agency to the possibility that the source may be unreliable or the reporting agency itself knows or should know that the source is unreliable.”  Id.  A second factor is “the cost of verifying the accuracy of the source versus the possible harm inaccurately reported information may cause the consumer.”  Id.  Whatever considerations exist, it is for “the trier of fact [to] weigh the[se] factors in deciding whether [the defendant] violated the provisions of section 1681i.”  Id.

There are a lot more golden quotes in the case decision, so it's one that's good to have in your toolbox. :)