i opened a credit card when i was 18 in 1995 and they took until 2005 to ch/off the account. I never even made a payment on it (young and stupid). When does the sol start? and from what, date of last payment or when they ch/off. Technically this debt is 12 years old and still haunting me. I have thought of paying it but I know this will not help. HHHHEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP
SOL starts one payment cycle after your last payment made, when you first failed to meet the payment terms of the account, or possibly more recently if you made additional payments. SOL refers to the statute of limitations, which depends on state law, and if it has passed you can raise this defense against legal action by the owner of the debt to block them from winning a lawsuit. Reporting period starts on the original date of delinquency, again when you first failed to meed the payment terms of the account, but NOT extended by any more recent payments that didn't bring the account current. They don't get to extend the reporting period by just not charging off the account. In fact, FCRA specifically says the reporting period is at most 7 years from at most 180 days from that original date of delinquency, in effect making it "charged off" for reporting purposes 180 days after that date. This change to FCRA was done in the mid 1990s because some creditors were simply failing to "charge off" accounts in order to extend negative reporting beyond the 7 year period. An account that went delinquent in 1995 should not be reportable on your credit reports. You should dispute it thru the CRA as obsolete, and if the DF "verifies" it, you would be able to sue them for erroneous reporting. Is this account still owned by BofA, or is a CA (JDB) attempting to collect on it, and reporting it with re-aged original delinquency date?
Your state's SOL information can be viewed here: http://whychat.5u.com/States/states.html Your account is classified here as an " open " account for the purposes of your state laws, even though it is not open and available to you. So when you look at this page, you will notice your account is outside the SOL in every single state in the union. On this link is also a letter to send any CA or JDB who seems to feel they want to collect. For the short term, check your three credit reports. Most likely, if the account is still there, it can be deleted with a simple letter to each CRA which says " This account is obsolete, please delete it from my report ".
It is still owned by BOA but at the time it was Barnett Bank. I was 18 years old and now I am 30. I was working for them when I got the card and then they layed me off and I could not pay it b/c of lack of job.
That debt is haunting you only because you allow it to do that. How is it haunting you, exactly? Just because it is showing up on your credit reports? If so, here is your solution: Dear CRA: This account is obsolete. Please delete it from my credit file. Thank you Do this in the US Mail, and send a separate letter to each CRA. Do this and the haunting will end without a whimper.
If you have any statements from this old account, check them for you payment requirements. There is a "loophole" in the FCRA reporting requirements for the "last payment" criteria. Some CCs run without a monthly payment amount required (i.e. $0.00 due), this allows the issuer to get around this requirement, and pretty much set any date they like. Look at the details if you have them. What are you credit reports showing for dates of acct opened, last payment, etc. This should be an easy one to dispute and remove.
