Spouse's responsiblity to answer to debt collectors

Did they ask for you? If they didn't ask for you then you said the right thing, also by her disclosing to you that your spouse owes a debt is a violation of the FDCPAct and state laws, if your state has laws regarding debt collection.

Open accounts are credit cards. How long has he lived in Washington? If it has been a while, you can use that states SOL as long as all information pertaining to his place of residence shows WA. If it lists he lives in Ohio and doesn't there could be an issue.

If you know the date of last payment you start the SOL on that. 6 years for Ohio and 3 years for Washington state. So in WA the SOL is way gone and if it has been more than 6 years, Ohio SOL has passed. Once you are positive the debt is time barred, IF they continue to call, send a cease and desist letter certified mail return receipt requested.


Also MCM is a joke and a real bottom feeder. Be sure to have your husband to check his credit reports and if they are on there, dispute it. You can get a 100% free credit report at annualcreditreport.com. When it asks what ones you want to view, only check one at a time. Review and dispute bad information. It's tough to find it sometimes, but when you are done looking at one credit reporting company you will see somewhere to select to go back to the website, select it and the select the next one you want to look at and then do the same for the third.

Thanks for this. They did not ask for me, just my husband, but they asked if I was his wife and I said yes. That's when they got into the details of the debt and started asking me to set up repayment. From what I was reading on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, it states that a debt collector generally is not permitted to discuss your debt with anyone other than you, your spouse, or your attorney- so she could discuss the debt with me because I told her I was his spouse.

Everything shows WA as our residence and we've been here for just about 4 years (in May will be 4 yrs).

So if the SOL has then, I dont have to worry at least about him being sued. What did the woman mean by marking the account as 'refused to pay'? She didnt talk to my husband, she spoke to me. And I refused to start repayment because its not my debt. I was reading where you can send a 'refuse to pay' letter, and that it had to be written and mailed to the collector. Can they also mark it as 'refused to pay' without talking to my husband and based solely on my responses to their collection attempts? Thanks.

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Correct and if they do sue him it is a simple as stating the debt is time barred and the case needs to be dismissed with prejudice. Also you can file a counter-claim for violating the FDCPA, taking legal action that cannot be taken. If it does come to that go to NACA.net and look for a consumer attorney in your state, I am sure that if they heard about this they would love to take the case and counter sue.

As for "refusal to pay" It is more like an attempt to get you to admit to the debt or more like them saying it is yours and you don't want to pay.

A cease and desist is the same as a refusal to pay, it is just worded differently. Only send a cease and desist if you are positive the debt is time barred.

Sorry about that I forgot about the Consumer and spouse part of the FDCPA. You are correct.

Another thing this means is it seems like a threat for them hoping you might think they are going to sue you and you might pay by some chance.

OK, Thanks so much!! This really helps!!

This is a common misconception that I have seen more than once in here lately. It is NOT a violation for the CA to sue you once the SOL has expired. This is because the courts ALLOW such a suit, unless you specifically invoke SOL expiration as your affirmative defense in your answer. SOL is an "active-only" defense, which means you must declare it in order for it to apply. If you do not use it as a defense, then the court isnt going to throw the case out for you. You MUST use it in order for it to apply. But it is not an 1 if they sue you after it has passed. I dont know where this comes from, but I have not seen even one such case where that is listed as an FDCPA violation, so there is, as far as I know, not even legal precedent for that.

Also, in terms of SOL, you need to go by the state you currently reside in, not where you used to live. In your case, Ohio courts have no jurisdiction anymore over you because you dont live within their jurisdiction anymore, so their state's laws cannot apply to you in this manner. Washington's laws will apply, even though a lot of CA's will try to claim otherwise when it favors them.