180 Day Rule for Collection Agencies Placing Neg

[tst888]

"A collection may only go on your credit report 180 days after the debt is owed, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act."

is this true? and if so is that reason enough to request that the account be removed from the credit file? and more importantly.....even if they do remove it can they legally just put it back on after the 180 has passed ??

a new entry on my report by a collection agency (Washington Mutual original creditor) says:

Date assigned: 12/04

Date reported : 2/05

Date of first deliquency: 11/04

anyway you look at it, that it's well under 180 days.

thanks for any advice or help

[willingtocope]

I'm not sure where you got that quote, but I don't think it accurate.

As I understand it, a CA can ding your report as soon as they are "assigned" or "sold" the debt. Some OC's do use 180 days as the lenght of time before they "charge off" a debt, but even then they may continue to hang onto it.

[tst888]

got that from http://www.creditinfocenter.com/creditreports/collections.shtml

thanks for your reply

[willingtocope]

Hmmmm...yep, I see where it says that. But in doing a search on the reference to the FCRA, the only places I see 180 days mentioned don't seem to agree.

I'm pretty sure there aren't any hard and fast rules about this. Some OC's hang onto the debt forever...some charge off at 180 days...some sell it as soon as it looks like you can't pay. Some CAs report as soon as it hits their desk...some never report.

[DocDon]

It sounds like the reference is being made to the account going to external collections... meaning if you 30-60-90 days late, it remains in the OC's internal collections dept. 120-160 you get those "you're in danger of defaulting" letters from the OC, then at 180 days, chargeoff - where as willingtocope stated it's either sold, assigned to a third-party CA, or remains with the OC.