Can a Collection Agency Change an Account’s Open Date? (2024)

FAQs

Can a debt collector change the open date? ›

A collection agency that's unsuccessful getting a payment from you can re-sell the debt to another collection agency. If that occurs, you'll see yet another collection entry appear on your credit report, with an even newer open date than the first one.

Normally, a creditor reports the first delinquency date of a charged-off account. This date should remain unchanged, regardless of how many times the debt gets sold. The only circ*mstance that a date would change is if you got the account current and then stopped paying on it, thereby creating a new delinquency date.

A new account with the third-party debt collection agency will open up, and the date opened on the account is the date purchased from the original (or previous) creditor. In this sense, the previous account is written off by the selling creditor, and a new collection account is opened.

If you attempt to contact creditors and dispute the debt, your actions could cause the clock to restart, thus allowing creditors more time to take legal action against you.

The three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) will remove collections information if you can prove that it's inaccurate. Sometimes credit reports contain factual errors, and while some are more benign, having a significant error like a misreported collection account can really hurt your score.

Re-aging a credit account is not only illegal, but it causes older negative accounts to appear to be more recent. This eventually leads to ruining your credit score. Neither creditors nor debt collectors can re-age an account. From the moment an account ages, it cannot be taken back in time.

Collection agencies cannot report old debt as new. If a debt is sold or put into collections, that is legally considered a continuation of the original date. It may show up multiple times on your credit report with different open dates, but they must all retain the same delinquency date.

Can you dispute a debt if it was sold to a collection agency? Your rights are the same as if you were dealing with the original creditor. If you do not believe you should pay the debt, for example, if a debt is stature barred or prescribed, then you can dispute the debt.

Assuming the collection information is accurate, the collection account can stay on your reports for up to seven years plus 180 days from the date the account first became past due.

Can a debt collector reopen a closed account? ›

Yes, a closed account can be reopened on your credit report under certain circ*mstances. If you contact the creditor and request the account to be reopened, they may consider it based on their policies. However, whether or not the account will be reopened depends on the creditors decision.

You can ask the creditor — either the original creditor or a debt collector — for what's called a “goodwill deletion.” Write the collector a goodwill letter explaining your circ*mstances and why you would like the debt removed, such as if you're about to apply for a mortgage.

A debt collector must stop all collection activity on a debt if you send them a written dispute about the debt, generally within 30 days after your initial communication with them. Collection activities can restart, though, after the debt collector sends verification responding to the dispute.

Almost any kind of account can be reinserted, including collection accounts, late payments, and accounts beyond the statute of limitations. And when these negative items reappear, they may omit your past dispute information.

You could file a dispute with the credit reporting agency that issued the incorrect information. If more than one of them reported this information, you could file a dispute with each reporting agency. They will have to investigate the matter and get back to you within 30 days.