If you report information about a delinquent account that is placed for collection (either internally or with a third party), charged to profit and loss, or subject to any similar action, you must notify the Credit Reporting Agency of the month and year of the commencement of the delinquency that immediately preceded your action. To accurately determine this date consider the following examples:

A consumer becomes delinquent on February 15, 1998. The creditor places the account for collection on September 1, 1998.

The delinquency date would be February 15, 1998 and would be reported as “February 1998.” The placement of this account for collection has no significance.

A consumer falls behind on monthly payments in February 1998, brings the account current in June 1998, pays on time and in full every month through October 1998 and then makes no further payments. The account is charged off by creditor in December 1999.

The most recent delinquency began when the consumer failed to make the payment due November 1998. The earlier delinquency is irrelevant. Therefore, the creditor must report the November 1998 date within 90 days of reporting the charge off in December 1999 or before that charge off date in March 2000.

An account becomes delinquent on December 1, 1998. The account is then placed for collection with an outside agency in February 1999. Collection is not successful and the account is placed with a second agency in January 2000.

The date of delinquency for reporting purposes is December 1998. Repeated placement of the account for collection does not change the date that the delinquency began.

An account becomes delinquent on January 10, 1998. The consumer makes partial payments for the next six months but never brings the account current. Creditor places the account for collection in July of 1998.

The date of the delinquency for reporting purposes would be January 1998 since the account was never brought current during the period of time partial payments were made.

The reporting period is not extended if the original creditor sells or transfers the account to another creditor.

The reporting period is not extended if the consumer responds to post charge off collection efforts by making payment on the debt,

The reporting period is not extended of the consumer disputes the account with a Consumer Reporting Agency.

For bad checks, the date of dishonor by the financial institution should be used as the date of delinquency.

For rental/lease agreements the date of delinquency would be the date the payment was last due.

This information is intended to be used as a guide and not intended as legal advice by Rent Recovery Service. Rent Recovery Service.com urges you to consult your attorney if you have any questions regarding the determination of the delinquency date of the debt. Reporting inaccurate information may subject you to sanctions and damages as stated in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.