Confused?? Don't Be...

The information you're about to read has been discussed numerous times since the inception of the FCC group on Facebook...however, in the past few days, I've seen it resurface, and there's still much confusion.

This is what many have asked or stated:

*"How long do collections stay on your report?"

*"If you make a payment, your account will re-age and the 7 years will start all over again."

*"Will my account fall off 7 years from the open date?"

*"What does the statue of limitations mean?"

What I've gathered is that many simply confuse the Statute of Limitations (SOL) and the 7-year reporting period based on the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).

Statute of Limitations

The time frame in which a creditor/debt collector has to sue you for unpaid balances and this varies by state and type of debt. This time period has no bearing on how long an item can be listed on your credit report.

Collectors are legally allowed to continue to contact you regarding a debt owed, however, they must make you aware that the SOL has passed. If they fail to give you this information, and you believe the SOL has passed, you can send a letter requesting verification of that information. They won't be able to continuing contacting you until they've verified this information. There are ways to re-age a debt...basically meaning "reset the clock". Here are some instances where this can occur:

*Acknowledging that you owe the debt *Making an agreement to pay the debt

*Making a partial payment

*Setting up a payment plan

Be careful when communicating with collectors. You don't want to put yourself in a position to have an old debt re-age, and they may try to get you to say or do something that would make this happen.

7-Year Reporting Period

This time frame determines how long negative items can be listed on your credit report. There are some items that will be deleted after 7 years (late payments, paid tax liens, chapter 13 bankruptcies) and some will be deleted

7 years and 180 days from the original delinquency date (charge offs and collections). The 7 years does not begin when the item was charged off or placed in collections (whether third party or internal) and it will NEVER restart.