I am looking at the FCRA (section 605 - C1), It states that the 7 year period... shall begin, with respect to any delinquent account that is placd for collection (Internally or by referral to a 3rd party, whichever is earlier) charged to profit and loss, or subjected to any similar action, upon the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded the collection activity, charge to profit and loss or similar action. I take this to mean that the 7 year reporting period begins 180 days after you missed the first payment. Now here's the question: I have a Bloomies account that went delinquent in June 1997. It was sent to collections in September 1997, closed on Jan 1998. Yet my credit report has the account closed and charged off in June 200. There were a spattering of payments made during this entire period but the account was never even close to being brought current. So which date is the true date that the 7 year clock should start? I think that it should be December 97 which is 180 days after the first missed payment which started the delinquency. Let me know if I am interpreting this correctly.
Sorry, not an expert, but I wanted to point out something and at least you get a little bit of a bump. You didn't mention (c2) which says (c1) only applies to items of info. added to your CR on or after 1/1/98 (Butch posted about this either recently or someone bumped an earlier post of Butch's up recently). Since you didn't say when it was reported in your file, I'm not sure if (c1) applies. Just wanted to bring that up in case you wanted to specify.
Glad it was useful if not necessarily helpful in a positive sense. On that 1/1/98 date, slight correction, that should be 12/29/97 according to this opinion letter from FTC staff: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/kosmerl.htm The letter, I believe, is highly relevant to your question (Just in case you hadn't already seen it.)
