Understanding the DATES on a Credit Report

Understanding the DATES on a Credit Report

Most credit reports have three major dates listed on any one trade-line. If you are seeing a lot of other dates listed, especially older ones, that’s called bad news as they are probably dates indicating when the client was last late with the creditor (these should be sent to us ASAP). However, today we are talking about the Open Date, Activity Date and Reporting Date and what they all mean when it comes down to credit.

The Open Date is definitely the least important, and has the primary focus of calculating the length of credit history on the particular trade-line. Length of Credit History is 15% of your score which focuses on your current and active trade-lines.

The Activity Date is very important and will tell you when that account will fall off the credit report. It’s generally 7 years from this date, NOT from the Open Date like so many believe. For derogatory items, it also represents the weight of the account, the newer the date the more damaging the account. By the way, this is also why paying off your collections can lower your score, and why you should really consult with us on the best course of action.

Then you have the Reporting Date (aka Reviewed Date), which is hugely significant to our credit restoration firm because it tells us if the creditor is still simply reporting that information to the credit bureaus. If they are not, and we are investigating the details of that account...well...you can only imagine what typically might occur.