[carinwallace]

I started receiving collection letters (my husband, that is) for lvnv funding llc stating that he owed $1410.00. The original creditor is listed as Aman-Norwest(wells fargo)F and the current creditor is LVNV Funding LLC with payment to be remitted to First Performance Recovery Corp. The first letter we received was about 6 months ago. If I am correct this is for a debt that was incurred in 1997 shortly after we got married and moved to Germany. After receiving about 3 letters stating the acct. was past due, this week I received another one stating that if we call now we ccan settle the acct. for only 423.20. I pulled my husbands credit report (he is currently deployed to the desert so cannnot handle this hiself) and cannot find this debt anywhere on the report. Is it possible tht it is past the SOL and has been removed from the reports? In this case, would it hurt his credit more to pay it and have it renewed on his cr as a paid co or would it actually improve his score even though it is not listed on the report? I know this probably doesn't make sense, f it doesn't let me know and i will try to clarify it better. We are hoping to have our credit cleared up within the next 8 years so we can buy a house when we get out of the military. Thanks so much!

[twokidtwocat]

It is very possible,but first you want to send a letter to validate this debt,since you moved out of the country,they may have use a process known as tolling.The term “toll”, “tolled”, and "tolling" are used in almost all statute of limitations rules and it means to "stop the running of a statutory period for a certain period of time".They can stop the SOL clock and the clock only starts again once you are back in the US.

[twokidtwocat]

If you find out that it indeed past the SOl send them a SOL letter like the one below;

Your Name
Your Address

Collector's Name
Collector's Address

RE: [insert account number or name of account or name of debt]:

Dear [insert collector's name or company name],

This letter is in response to your [letter dated xx-xx-2005] (copy enclosed) or [phone call on xx-xx-2005], concerning the collection of the above referenced [account or date].

I do not believe I owe what you say I owe therefore I dispute this debt. I am well aware of my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (fdcpa) and my state laws so I hope to save both of us a great deal of time by letting you know that not only do I dispute the validity of this debt, I have also checked with my State Attorney General and verified that the Statute of Limitations for enforcing this type of debt through the courts in (insert your state or the state in which the contract was signed) has expired. Therefore, should you decide to pursue this matter in court I intend to inform the court of my dispute of this debt and that the "statute of limitations" has expired.

This letter is your formal notification that I consider this matter closed and demand that you, or anyone affiliated with your company, stop contacting me regarding this or any other matter except to advise me that your debt collection efforts are being terminated or that you or the creditor are taking specific actions allowed by the FDCPA or my state laws.

Be advised that I consider any contact not in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act a serious violation of the law and will immediately report any violations to my State Attorney General, to the Federal Trade Commission and, if necessary, take whatever legal action is necessary to protect myself. Be advised that I tape record all phone calls and violations of the FDCPA can result in you or your company being personally fined up to $1,000 per incident.

(Sign above name)
Printed Name

[stanley]

Added to what 2kid has stated, not all the states support tolling of SOL. Carinwallace, can you consult a lawyer or an advisor with all the papers you have. Keep us updated on what is happening.