Odd collection letter on an old phone account?
Date: Tue, 08/22/2006 - 14:25
My wife Lived in CA back in 98-99 and moved back tot he midwest in Jan of 00.
Today out of the blue she got a collection letter for $400 for a phone account that was not shut off by her ex in CA untill March of 00.
Does the 4 year SOL apply to this debt?
What rights does she have? she has never been contacted about this untill now, and we just had an offer accepted on a house. I am sure they were watchign her credit report and now with the activity decided to take action.
She did call to ask them what the letter was about and they told her and that she needs to pay by the end of the month or the fine increases.
My question is do we even have to pay this?
What would be our best course of action?
We live in Iowa, and again this phone bill was in Ca.
I am not sure if utility bills are different than other debts.
Does your wife remember when she last paid on this account? SOL
Does your wife remember when she last paid on this account? SOL applies on this debt too. The statute in California is 2 years for oral agreements and 4 years for written agreements. Ask your wife if she remembers the last payment dates. From that date, the SOL will be calculated to find out whether it has expired or still within legal collections.
The Last Payment would have been Dec of 99, and that is what the
The Last Payment would have been Dec of 99, and that is what the collection agency told her as well.
Oh and sorry for this being posted in the wrong forum, I just noticed that right when it got moved :)
Oh and also I forgot to mention, that we were 100% unaware of th
Oh and also I forgot to mention, that we were 100% unaware of this. It does not show up on the credit report that was run by the bank for our home loan.
My main concern is if they add this to her report if it could make our financing fall through.
The debt has gone out of the SOL period by now. Now, no collecti
The debt has gone out of the SOL period by now. Now, no collection agency or the creditor can legally force you to make a payment on this account. They will insist you to do a small payment at this time so that the SOL gets renewed from the beginning. Your best bet will be to send a dispute letter notifying the expiry of the SOL. In case, they take the matter to the court, you need some proof to show that the matter was taken care of. Send the letter through certified mail with return receipt requested and keep the green receipt in your important folder.
Even though you can legally refuse to make a payment, the account can be reported in your credit file if the company wants to. If the debt collector has the legitimate info about this debt account, he can hit your credit file marking this account in 'collections'. This will affect your credit scores until the negative info is taken off after 7 years.