A few days ago I was considering retaining Lexington, but I decided to start disputing myself. Today I was taking a good look at their website and found the following incorrect statement and I quote: "The 10 Myths of Credit Repair When I pay off a past-due account, such as a charge off or a collection account, it will show "paid" and will no longer be negative. It is quite difficult to restore your credit without somehow satisfying your outstanding debts. However, the act of paying off a debt can actually hurt your credit. Negative credit is allowed to stay on the credit report for a maximum of seven years, except for bankruptcy which may remain on the credit report for ten years. This seven year clock begins ticking on "the date of last activity" or, in other words, when the last action took place on the account. By paying an outstanding, delinquent debt you will change the account status to "paid collection," "paid was late," or "paid was charged off" - which will still stand out as a very negative listing. Furthermore, you will create a new date of last activity on the day you settle the account. The seven year clock will reset and begin all over again. When you have outstanding debt, it is almost always prudent to seek professional help so that you may settle your debts without further damaging your credit. " Lexington, if you are reading this; How can you claim to be a law firm if you are not telling your customers what the law really is. The 7 year clock does not change if you pay a delinquent bill. Please correct this information on your website.
It is something to look out for though. I think the clocks are illegally reset sometimes when the debts are paid. This is something I've been thinking about lately. Experian is the only CRA that tells you exactly when they plan to delete negative information from your file. Equifax does have a "date of last activity" and I'm not sure if that is what they go by when they delete info. Trans Union is a total mystery to me. Trans Union I guess has something called a "maximum delinquency date"? I have never seen this on my credit report.
I work for Lexington and greatly appreciate your feedback regarding our website. As you noticed, our websites are all in need of some review and revamping. I will make sure that our attorneys review this issue and update the websites accordingly. The resetting of the seven-year "clock" has been interpreted in different ways over the years. I am with you; I am not an attorney but my understanding of the FCRA is that the seven (or ten) year clock starts as the time of the delinquency (i.e. the date of the last late payment or the date when the account is charged off) and that paying the account does nothing to update that time frame. Thanks again for your feedback.
The "paying a debt restarts the clock" is a common belief. I think maybe that's the way the law used to read. If so, it would have been a case of Lexington posting old info to the web without updating it or even checking it -- a common mistake on the web. Still, as a law firm, you'd like to think Lexington would take a little more care with things such as this.
It *DID* used to restart the clock. As of the 1996 ammendments, it's no longer legal to do this. I had already forwarded that exact passage to Lexington a number of weeks back, but I never received a reply.
The "paying a debt restarts the clock" is a common belief. I think maybe that's the way the law used to read.====== ================This is a real no brainer "
It *DID* used to restart the clock. As of the 1996 ammendments, it's no longer legal to do this.========== ==========Wonder Why
Some of the content on our website is pretty old. Thank you for your feedback, we will update the website accordingly (it may take a little while since we have so many websites, but we will do it).
