Hey All,

I have been trying to get a straight answer on when items will fall off of my credit report, but every time I call equifax or transunion I do not get any reasonable resolution to my question. I have three collection accounts (only 2 listed on transunion however) which I had paid in full in October of 2008. From what I have read it takes 6 years since the date the item went to collection for it to be purged from the system. My fear is that in paying these debts, I have made an old date current, which will actually adversely affect my credit score. Here is a general overview of the three debts in question:

Debt 1: Activ Kapital (Wells Fargo)

Date Assigned - 08/2006
Date of last payment - 09/2004 (to futureshop I would assume)
Date Paid - 10/2008

Debt 2: Recover Corp (Telus)

Date Assigned - 04/2008
Date of last payment - 11/2003 (to Telus)
Date Paid - 09/2008

Debt 3: Athletic Club/Credit Risk Mgmt

Date Assigned - 09/2004
Date of last payment - 07/2004

Date Paid - 09/2008

I also paid off two credit cards that had been closed by the credit grantor in October 2008.

My question is, given the dates of the above items, when should the collection items be purged from the system under Equifax rules? Are transunion rules similar (I have heard they are less restrictive). I hope that by fulfilling the collection debt that I didn't, as a result, reset the "date of last activity" to current and by doing this add 4 years to the time that it will take for the debt to be wiped from my file.

I have heard somewhere that to counteract this from happening, the credit agencies are now purging paid collection items after 2-3 years, but I can't find anyone to confirm this.

Also, will it take 6 years from Oct 2008 to have those two credit cards purged from my credit file? How negatively will the "closed by credit grantor" affect my credit in the upcoming years, given that both accounts were paid in full?

Thanks for all your time.