Old phone bill debt

By federal law,the burden of proof is on the debt collector. Send this letter to them:

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/about216.html

If the last payment on this debt was 1998,that debt is almost guaranteed to be out of the statute of limitations for legal action or reporting. If they validate and prove this is your debt,the next step is up to you.

Have you gone through your latest credit report? This account should not show up since it's too old to be reported. Under the federal laws, negative items stay for seven years from the date of first delinquency.

I am experiencing the same thing. I signed up for excel phone service in 1998. Due to a "billing error" I did not receive a bill for 9 months. One day, nine months later, I received ten month's worth of bills. To top it off, the rate plan was wrong. I called about this, cancelled the service,and they said that they would adjust the bill and send me a new, updated bill. In the meantime, I sent in 2 $50.00 payments, just to show I intended to pay. For four months, I called every few weeks asking about this updated bill. I finally stopped trying. I heard NOTHING until about 5 months ago. A collection agency started calling, trying to collect this, 8 years later. Excel does not even have a bill on file for me, just these collection agencies, which now total 5 that the account has been passed around to. This is ridiculous. I am tired of getting calls, letters etc. from these collection agancies. I have t explain it over and over, I am really getting irate.