Question about collection agencies and credit reports from old, OLD delinquent accounts.?

We're NOT deadbeats, but 10 years ago we had a business go belly-up due to serious illness and lost EVERYTHING..business, home, cars, everything. Medical bills wiped us out. We never filed bankruptcy, but it was REALLY bad, including foreclosure on our home.

We've worked hard to repair our credit (which is pretty good now) and we're FINALLY squeaking by on our disability. We thought after seven years all past delenquent bills and judgements were removed from your credit report.

NOW we're getting bills for them! Seems an agency "bought" all delenquent accounts from some of our creditors, and are threatening to put them on our credit report. There's no way we can pay these...we're talking almost 100k!!

Is it legal for them to do this after all this time? Does anybody have any suggestions? We really, TRULY aren't dodging our creditors, but we're older, disabled, and on a fixed income. Paying ANYTHING on these old bills will be difficult.

HELP!!

Answers:
The collectors cannot collect on this debt. You need to sent a certified letter to them right away stating that the statute of limitations is up on it, assuming it is 4-5 yrs - some states are different. California is only 4 yrs. Tell them that it is a violation to report this debt again and pls stop calling and harassing you. Send them a debt validation and make sure you put in it the above. Type in debt validation letter and samples will come up. Good Luck.
Legally they can put them on your credit report if the time from the date of the first delinquency is less than 7 years ago. If it is more than 7 years, then they can't according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Just monitor your credit report and if anything pops up, dispute it right away.
As Cali-Gal says, they can't put these back on your credit report. But many times the do, because they depend on your lack of knowledge to get away with it.

And depending on what state you live in, and type of debt, they may not be able to collect. This part gets complicated in your case because you have such a variety of debts.

So take a look at the links below and LEARN the law! Contact me if you have any specific questions.
THey cant collect on them anymore and they need to take them off your credit report because the Statute of limitations has already kicked in. Usually it varys from state to state but the longest i've seen is 6 years. SO you should be ok. go to www.adviceontime.com and read the article on credit, they have a very good dispute letter that you can send to get that stuff removed. I dont see any issues in getting your stuff removed. Dont worry hang in there!

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