I had this same problem if you have a copy of both your transunion and Equifax reports from any prior time period showing the date had been listed as 20005 send them a copy along with the dispute saying its illegal for the collectors to change the date. They removed mine with no problem at all but monitor your credit reports if you plan on trying to wait for this to fall off as they will do it again and again closer to the time it is due to come off. AKTIV is notorious for this.

Orginally it was less than 8k, with interest and fees ect it ballooned to over 12k only because the orginal collectors would not accept my offer on a deal.

So I've been biding my time, waiting for it to drop off my record and let the debt get a bit older than perhaps they will accept the deal to settle the debt.

Thanks for your input guys, I do plan to write some letters and see how it goes. Going to try with just the credit unions first off, as to not actually acknoledge the debt to CT / MAC and actually give them a reson to reset the date.

12k is a lot. I would get a lawyer. They need to prove you last made a payment in 2010, which of course they can't.

Well, they did, so I guess they can.

Every account in the "collections" section, comes with a 6 digit identifier before the "Reported" date. It's the date it was assigned or sold to the particular agency or debt buyer reporting under that section.

It's same number for both bureaus and is used to connect it with the original creditor trade line debt from whence it came. It's supposed to insure a bad debt doesn't get reported beyond the 6 year reporting limit set by the bureaus, or the 7 year statuory limit imposed by the Ontario Consumer Reporting Act. A bad debt may be assigned or sold as many as 6 times after it leaves the orignal creditor's in house collections.

Thus a single bad debt might create multiple entries under the various sections within a credit report. As mentioned, the bureaus are supposed to ensure that, despite the multi reporting, information on a bad debt doesn't extend beyond the 6 year reporting period. However, sad to say, lenders, their collection agents, debt buyers and bureau personnel are all friends and collude to avoid obeying this law. I say "collude" because that's exactly what it is. Even Consumer Protection cooperates with it. Collection agencies pay the bureaus big money, who reciprocate by letting them do what they want in this regard..

The reason for this practice is largely shame based. People who default on their loans are too embarrassed to complain. And if they do, they're treated like 3'rd class citizens with lies, evasion and form letters.

If that sounds a tad harsh, consider the number of collection laws on the books for 20 years (R.R.O. Regulation 74 (Ch. 21-25), 1990) and which the debt regulation unit of Consumer Protection has, not once, but thousands of times, refused to enforce.

At this point you can do one of 3 things

1. Bitch and complain on this forum like the other 99.9% and do nothing else. The item will eventually disappear off your report by 2018 or 2020. The hard inquiries may take a bit longer though.

2. Stock up on printer cartridges and write 500 letters of dispute to Trans Union and Equifax. Hopefully, you won't get stomach poisoning from licking all those stamps. And you'll need a bigger file cabinet for the 499 form letters you get back.

3. Complain to Brian Pitkin, the Registrar of the bureaus and head of the Debt Regulation Unit in Consumer Services @416 326-8802. You can also write a letter but........... no one will read beyond the salutation ...........necessary for another form letter.

Hey Guys,

I have a bad loan at Canadian Tire, previously the last date of activity was 2005 or 2006. Recently I just received a letter from MAC requesting over $12,000 for this debt.

Looking at my credit report now, MAC has a collections listing on my credit report from 2010, and the date of last activity on my Credit Report for Canadian Tire updated to 03/07/2010.

Previously the debt was being collected by Contact Resources.

What can I do about this? Can they just reset the date of last activity on the Canadian Tire listing?