Collections · Free practice
Collection Sold to Another Company? Check One Date Field
One useful skill to practice.
A sold debt gets a new entry, but the reporting clock doesn't restart. The date-of-delinquency carry-forward rule and how to spot a moved clock.
Read the full guide on CheckDispute Guides (opens a new tab)Check what you know.
3 questions. No sign-up. Your answers stay in this page.
A debt was sold and the new collector's entry shows a recent 'date opened.' Does the seven-year reporting clock restart?
Review all questions and explanations
- A debt was sold and the new collector's entry shows a recent 'date opened.' Does the seven-year reporting clock restart?
Answer: No — the period runs from the original delinquency plus a 180-day window, and the later collector generally carries the original date of delinquency forward
15 U.S.C. 1681c fixes the start at the delinquency preceding the collection activity; 1681s-2 has the later collector carry that date forward.
- What does the FTC say happens to a collection entry when you pay it?
Answer: Paying off an old debt may not erase it from credit history, and settling may be reported as not paid in full
Payment changes the balance or status, not the entry's existence. Accurate reporting of a settled debt is not an error.
- Before a collector may report your debt to a credit reporting company, what must happen first?
Answer: It must speak to you by phone or in person, or mail/send a message and wait a reasonable period for an undeliverable notice
Regulation F's contact-before-reporting rule; the CFPB's interpretation treats 14 consecutive days after mailing as a reasonable period.
Your take-away checklist
- Pull the original creditor's entry: name, status, date of first delinquency, balance.
- Pull the new collector's entry: name, account fragment, date opened, date of first delinquency, balance.
- Compare the two dates of first delinquency — they should match; note any that moved later.
- Compare the account-number fragments to confirm the entries describe the same debt.
- Check your correspondence: did the new holder send validation information before the entry appeared?
- Record when you were first contacted — by phone, letter or message — and the date.
- If ownership is unclear, note that a written request for the original creditor's name within the validation period pauses collection.
- Write one sentence naming the moved field and the date your records support.
Read the source, keep the context.
Original questions and worked examples from CheckDispute, checked against the full guide and primary sources below. Use the explanations to understand what each record does and does not establish.
- law.cornell.edu: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1681c
- law.cornell.edu: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1681s-2
- consumerfinance.gov: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1006/38/
- consumerfinance.gov: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1006/30/
- consumerfinance.gov: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/can-debt-collectors-collect-a-debt-thats-several-years-old-en-1423/
- consumer.ftc.gov: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/debt-collection-faqs
General education, not personalized legal advice. You can dispute errors directly for free. A practice score does not predict a credit or dispute result.