Credit glossary
Re-aging
Reporting a later delinquency date than the real one, which keeps a negative account on a credit report past its legal limit.
The 7-year clock for collections and charge-offs runs from 180 days after the original delinquency, and every later owner must report the same date. Re-aging happens when a collector or debt buyer reports its purchase date, or some other later date, as the date of first delinquency. The CFPB has found furnishers reporting charge-off dates and service disconnection dates in that field.
Spotting it takes your records and a calendar. Compare the collector's delinquency date with the original creditor's tradeline, your old statements and the other bureaus. If the collector's date is later, dispute it with every bureau showing it and include the evidence. A payment on an old debt never resets the reporting clock, though in some states it can affect the lawsuit deadline.
Example
If the real delinquency began in February 2021, the item must go by about August 2028. A debt buyer that reports March 2023 instead pushes removal to about September 2030, roughly two years too long.
Guides that go deeper
- Zombie debt and illegal re-aging: how old debts come backZombie debts are old, paid, or wrong debts that resurface after a sale. Re-aging is reporting a newer delinquency date. How to spot and fight both.
- The date of first delinquency and the 7-year reporting clockThe date of first delinquency decides when a collection or charge-off must leave your report. Here is the 180-day rule and how to compute your own date.
Sources
- 15 U.S.C. 1681c: Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2: Responsibilities of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- Supervisory Highlights, Issue 22 (Summer 2020), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Zombie Debt, National Consumer Law Center (2015)
This is education, not legal or financial advice. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.