If One Collector Sells A Debt To Another, Will It Stay On My Credit Report Longer?


If One Collector Sells A Debt To Another, Will It Stay On My Credit Report Longer?

Time period to stay on your report is 7 years from default regardless of who owns the debt.

No.  The time period for an account to stay on your credit report is 7 years after you default.  This is dictated by the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).

Selling the debt does nothing to change this law.

Sometimes debt collectors (debt buyers) will claim to buy an account and then they say that extends the period of time their collection account will stay on your credit report.  That’s a lie.

Even if the account is sold from say Capital One to Portfolio Recovery and then 5 years later it is sold to LVNV, you still start the 7 year countdown when you default.

What should you do if a collector threatens to illegally extend the reporting time?

Any collector that tells you something different is lying.  And lying about this means almost certainly that the debt collector has violated the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act).  When they do this, you should look at suing.

The FDCPA prohibits a debt collector from lying and from threatening to do something that is illegal.  The lie is because the FCRA says 7 years from default.

And it is a threat to do something illegal because the FCRA tells collectors (and anyone else) that this is not allowed.

So you would look at suing the debt collector under a number of sections of the FDCPA.

What if the debt collector actually changes the time to credit report so the account stays on your credit reports too long?

You should sue under the FDCPA — again it is against the law.  And you should look at disputing under the FCRA because if this is not fixed, it is almost certainly a violation of the FCRA.

Contact us if you have questions about your credit reporting.

If you live in Alabama, feel free to call us at 1-205-879-2447 or contact us through our website.

We’ll be glad to look at your credit reports and see if the debt collector is properly reporting or is illegally trying to keep negative information for too long.

If they are violating the law, we’ll talk about suing them.

I look forward to talking with you!

Have a great day.

John Watts

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