Aging on credit reports

Re-aging the account is illegal. The new collection agency cannot change the last payment date you had on the WaMu account. Some companies do this because they want to give the account a current look and the negative is reported for longer period.

Go ahead and dispute the date with the CRA reporting the item. It should be updated with the actual payment date. CA can just put their date on which they got the collections, only if they have your file.

That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't some loophole that allowed the CA to age it from the date they bought it. I was really surprised to see it there, I thought it would be off by now. It was listed under active collections, but I've never heard from the CA, and the last I'd heard about this debt was back in 1999.

I will go ahead with the dispute letter.

Because of moving several times since then, I don't have any of the documents regarding this debt. Will that be a problem? Once I dispute, will WaMu verify the date of last payment? Or do I need to prove to them that I haven't paid on this in 7 years?

Per the consumer protection afforded by the FCRA Section 605, sue the CA or the credit bureau reporting it. You will win the case and be compensated up to $1,000 if the date is not updated.

See the list of staff opinion letters on FCRA

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/index.htm

Thanks! I will send out my dispute letter tomorrow!

Send the letter through US certified mail and return receipt requested, so that you have the date documented. Keep one copy before sending the letter.

I will . . . . I've dealt with enough IPDL's to know that I must document and cover all my bases . . . .