Can a collection agency collect on an 11yr.old debt
Date: Thu, 02/08/2007 - 15:55
It depends on your state's statute of limitations. Here is the
It depends on your state's statute of limitations. Here is the info. for Kentucky.
Open Account (credit card): 5 years
Written Contract: 15 years
Oral Contract: 5 years
Domestic Judgment: 15 years
Foreign Judgment: 15 years
Send the collector a debt validation letter to make them show that they can collect on the debt. If the debt is this old, chances are you won't hear from them again. You can find a letter template here..
www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/sample6.html
Make sure you send the letter via certified mail/return receipt requested.
Yes they can but they can't sue you for it. I wouldn't suggest p
Yes they can but they can't sue you for it. I wouldn't suggest paying it until you can pay it or settle it off quickly.
Paying on a timebarred debt is kind of a mixed bag for some peop
Paying on a timebarred debt is kind of a mixed bag for some people.
Some would say you have a moral obligation to pay.
Collector cannot sue or report you because it is so old.
Now if you would decide to pay this you should put it in writing so they don't attempt to sue by claiming that by paying you are legally affirming this debt.
I would also put in writing that they cannot report this payment as a paid collection just to cover your bases.
Pay or not,It can only be decided by you personally.
Depends... the debt itself may be 11 years old, but when did you
Depends... the debt itself may be 11 years old, but when did you stop paying on it? SOL may begin its course from the last activity on the account. If you paid them 5 years ago, and SOL on written contracts is 10 years, then they may be able to successfully sue for the balance.
Don't forget... even if past the SOL, they can still sue you. T
Don't forget... even if past the SOL, they can still sue you. The good new is you only need to plead the SOL DEFENSE. Then you could move for summary judgment and win if in fact the SOL has expired. I see junk debt buyers filing suit or threatening to file suit well after the SOL expires because they think you will not file an answer. If they sue and you do not file an answer, it does not matter if the SOL expired... they win.
As for the moral obligation, some would say it exists. I will hold back my viewpoint on this obligation for now. But if you feel you must pay the debt, make sure you get the payoff terms in writing and make sure you can pay what you agree to, otherwise your agreement starts the SOL all over again. That means they can sue you, and you will not have the benefit of the SOL defense.
Will paying off an age old debt (say 20 years old), going to imp
Will paying off an age old debt (say 20 years old), going to improve my credit scores.
I am aware of the SOL part and the reporting time period. I also know it is moral obligation to pay the debts, but can this decision help in raising credit scores? Some people say yes but I guess I am looking for a very good reason for doing this that directly put an impact on the credit scores... You know what I mean.. Someone shopping for credit and wants to see his credit scores going up. If he finds this account from a collection agency and knows that it's not reporting in the credit report, will paying this debt raise his scores? and if yes, how much?
My understanding is that the credit score cannot be based on any
My understanding is that the credit score cannot be based on any account so old that it can no longer be legally reported by the credit bureaus. If that is the case, I think paying may actually hurt your credit score. Because this would be new activity, they could now report it is paid in full, paid as agreed, etc. I think they could legally include days past due info as well. The credit score algorithm is a hot topic anyawy, the subject of some class action lawsuits.
My opinion, leave it alone unless you can get a written agreement that the account either remain unreported or reported in a certain manner so as to help rather than harm your credit score. You might have some luck negotiating this because whoever owns this account will probably be happy just to get paid.
TexasLawyer is right -- this is one of the damned annoying thing
TexasLawyer is right -- this is one of the damned annoying things about the way our credit system works; if you try to do the right thing by making good on an old debt, you can actually get penalized for it because of the whole date-of-last-activity thing, which necessitates negotiating with the creditor to get them to either report something in your favor or, at the very least, not report anything at all, so that the DOL doesn't change. How much easier all this would be to deal with if you could just drop a money order in the mail... hopefully Congress will address this at some point by modifying the FCRA.
