Expert: Regan Shinski - 11/27/2009

Question
I heard that your credit report history goes back 7 ears from the date of last activity.  What constitutes "Last Activity?"  Does it have to be something that I did?  Or does something like a phone call from a debt collector qualify as "Last activity?"  If they are re-cycling my "Last activity" date to an erroneous date how can I have that corrected?

Answer
Hi Jack:

Credit reports can generally contain information for seven years from the date of last activity or up to 7.5 years from the date of first delinquency on a derogatory item.

The date of last activity has to be a transaction type event, not a phone call.  On a closed account with no balance it is the last purchase or payment.

On a derogatory item with a balance it is the date of first delinquency.  This is the date the account became thirty days late and was never caught up again.  The exception is if there was an accelerator clause in the contract.  An accelerator clause used when the contract states the creditor can ask for the entire balance if you miss a certain number of payments.  In that case it will stay on for seven years from the accelerator clause due date.  Certain billing and chargeoff cycles can also cause the actual time to be 7.5 years on derogatory accounts.

If you have a bad account reporting past these dates, you should send a dispute letter directly to the credit bureaus and dispute them as "obsolete."  Do not dispute an old account in good standing because it may hurt your credit score.  Old, good accounts help your score tremendously.

Thanks for you question - I hope this helps.

Regan
mbscompany@aim.com