No, they legally cannot re-age the account. You need to be vigilant and monitor your credit report through the credit bureaus. If a collection agency tries to re-age the account by reporting it with new dates, you need to dispute it immediately. Keep all copies of any documentation you have and get in the future.

It can’t be put back on your credit report…the max. it can stay is 7.5 years from the original default date. There is massive confusion over this issue…people confuse this time period with another period…the statute of limitations.

As long as the statute of limitations has expired for your state, then the debt is time barred and you don’t have to pay it back. This debt is most likely time barred as long as you don’t live in Wyoming or Montana..

Federal law (US Code Title 15, §1681c) controls the behavior of credit reporting agencies. This law is known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under FCRA §605 (a) and (b), an account in collection will appear on a consumer’s credit report for 7.5 years. The clock starts approximately 180 days after the date of first delinquency on the account. To learn when an account will be removed by the credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and others), add 7.5 years to the date of first delinquency. Subsequent activity, such as resolving the debt, is irrelevant to the seven-year rule. However, if the debt is a tax lien, that can appear for seven years from the date of payment. A bankruptcy will appear for ten years from the date of the final order. Delinquent federal student loans can be reported indefinitely, i.e., for as long as they are delinquent.

Just because a debt is removed from a credit report does not mean the statute of limitations for receiving a judgment to collect the debt has passed. Federal credit report laws and a state statute of limitations laws are separate and independent from each other. The 7.5 years starts running from the date of first delinquency, which generally means seven and a half years from the date of last payment. Review your credit report carefully to make sure the date of first delinquency being reported on these accounts are correct.

The law stating that derogatory items must be removed from credit reports after seven years is designed to help consumers recover from past credit mistakes and help them rebuild their credit rating. If you find charged-off accounts appearing on your credit report after seven years, you may want to dispute the incorrect listings with the credit bureaus.

Some creditors, especially debt purchasing firms, will report inaccurate charge-off dates to extend the amount of time an old account appears on your credit report. If you find any inaccurate information, you should dispute the credit report listing with the bureau in question. See the Federal Trade Commission document How to Dispute Credit Report Errors for more information.

The seven-year rule only applies to derogatory items, not to accounts that you are keeping current, or which you closed in good standing. As long as an account is not considered derogatory, it can remain on your credit report indefinitely. In fact, even accounts that are no longer reporting to the credit bureaus may continue to appear on your report as long as the account is not a derogatory item. It is common to see positive items that are more than 20 years old appearing on a credit report.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law, requires consumer credit reporting companies to report accurate information. If you find any inaccurate information in your credit report, you should dispute the credit report listing with the bureau in question.

Steps to dispute credit report
The Federal Trade Commission lists the following steps as the appropriate method for resolving credit reporting inaccuracies:

Step 1: Get Your Credit Report
An amendment to the FCRA requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up a Web site, toll-free telephone number, and mailing address through which you can order your free annual report. To order, visit AnnualCreditReport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print this form. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually.

You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order from only one or two. The law allows you to order one free copy from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.

You need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. If you have moved in the last two years, you may have to provide your previous address. To maintain the security of your file, each nationwide consumer reporting company may ask you for some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment. Each company may ask you for different information because the information each has in your file may come from different sources.

Step 2: Look for Errors
Review the report and compare the information it contains to information you know to be accurate. In particular, make sure the report contains your accurate:

• Name
• Social Security number
• Address and previous addresses
• Accounts and account numbers

If any of the above information is inaccurate, the consumer credit reporting company may have added incorrect infor