Re-Aging: One of Debt Collectors Dirty Tricks on Your Credit Report
Re-Aging: One of Debt Collectors Dirty Tricks on Your Credit Report
We previously described 5 of the more common dirty tricks that debt collectors commit against your credit reports.
“Re-Aging” is where the collector lies so that the account (or “tradeline”) will stay on your report longer than it should.
Negative accounts generally stay on for about 7 years after you default.
But sometimes debt collectors will say the account just went into default to get the 7 years to last longer than it should.
This is so it will stay on your credit reports longer than it should.
The idea is that you will have to pay money to get the debt collector to “fix” your credit report.
Let’s look an example of how this happens.
Here is an example:
- You default on a credit card in 2010
- The account will come off in 2017
- But a debt buyer (Asset Acceptance, LVNV, Midland, Portfolio, etc) claims to buy the debt in 2013.
- It knows the negative item will only stay on your credit report for the rest of 2017.
- So it lies and tells the credit agencies that you defaulted in 2013.
- This will make the account stay on till 2020.
- So you call the debt buyer and they “graciously” offer to remove the credit reporting if you will pay them money — you know, blackmail type money so they stop breaking the law.
What do you do if this has happened to your credit report?
The best solution is either to dispute the debt with the credit reporting agencies or to sue the debt collector for lying about this.
Whenever we have sued the debt collectors/debt buyers will claim it was a simply error and of course they did not mean to do this.
I’m skeptical.
To say the least!
I’ve seen the exact same excuse too many times — this is such a common “mistake” that I think it is intentional.
Protect yourself.
Contact Us.
If you live in Alabama and want to chat with us, call us at 205-879-2447.
Or fill out our contact form and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
We will gladly talk with you and help you figure out your best course of action.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
You are the best. I just started to review my reports and your knowledge and information is valuable. Your knowledge and information saved me from a credit card card law suit. Thanks.
You are welcome — glad it was helpful.
Best wishes
John Watts