Recent Charge Off, Really recent!!!

This account was orignally opened 20 years ago. I would like to ask the OC for a copy of the original agreement so I can understand what was actually in the contract. I am concerned that Chase has simply forwarded my payments to the JDB and I am concerned that this has entered me into a contract with the CA which I did not willingly do and would not have done without all validation and particulars regarding this account understood and in my posession for possible review by my lawyer. I asked a novation question under the library thread as I did not know how to start a thread myself. (duuh) I am hoping someone has some advise here. I feel like am between a rock and a hard place. I feel the OC has not kept their part of the contract , first by no notification that this account was sold and no longer owned by them, and second by accepting payments on something they sold. They have not notified me in any way that this account was sold to someone else.
Perhaps they felt that the payments made for usuary interest rates , late fees and over the limit fees along with the tax write off they will take pretty much made this account paid in full anyway( ha-ha that would mean they had a conscience rather than a predatory instinct to make whatever possible without regard to reasonableness - which it looks like they will now be forced into by Senate hearings) They sold it to someone without my knowledge or consent . Would a request for original contract with my signiture and full documentation of all payments in their receipt along with the terms of the sale to JDB be appropriate at this time. Thanks for any help!

 

Any payment made to the OC after they have sold the account has to be forwarded to the CA. More than likely it has renewed the statute of limitations on the account as of the date you last paid, if allowed in your state. They are not obligated to inform you of who they are selling the account to, or the sale amount. They have kept their end of the contract, you have not.

 

We need to get back to basics on this problem; we need to know the dates involved here. You state the account is "twenty years old", and not "used in last six years except to make payments.

The question is, what is the "Date of First Major Deliquency"? When did the account first go "negative (as to payment status), and never become "current". You have two elements here that need defining:

1) Is this debt legally collectable, due to possibly being beyond statute of limitations

2) It may be past true reporting limitations for credit reporting.

If Chase is accepting payments, and sending you statements, then they are "acting" as if the account were still with them. If they have truly closed the account, they will direct you to the collection agent. Hence you should be able to deal with them directly.

But first, you need to know where you stand legally regarding collection and reporting of this debt. This may involve writing the OC and requesting the information.

But, any agreement that you do enter into, make sure you get it in writing, and verify the agreement before you send any payment. There is nothing wrong with calling the CA or OC, just make sure you get anything agreed to in writing first, before acting.

Due to the age of the account, the CA will most likely accept almost any reasonable offer for settlement. Though, the CA will not be able to do anything about the OC reporting for yor credit reports.

 

When I say this account is more than 20 years old I mean it was opened in 1987, I had used it from that time until about 6 years ago when I had numerous lates and the account was closed by the credit granter. I continued to receive statements and pay on the balance which continued to increase due to the interest rate, over the limit fees etc. The original balance ( six years ago) was somewhere around 5000.00. As of my last statements the balance was over 10,000. I have simply been trying to pay on this until I could figure out some way to reduce it or pay it off. I noticed a couple of months ago in my true credit alerts that the account was 90 , then 120, then 150 days late. I should have addressed this immediately but because I knew I had made recent payments . I thought this was just a reporting /cross in the mail situation. When I saw the alerts (on true credit) I made sure that I continued to send in payments. I am guessing that the account may have already been charged off at this point but I really don't know when or to whom it was actually sold. Would the first major delinquency for purposes of SOL be 6 years ago (when the account was first closed by chase) or would it be my most recent 1000.00 payment in March of this year? I realize now that Chase must have stopped sending statements by Oct or Nov of 06- but I just used my old statemnts for account number and mailing address...did not have any ideas Chase no longer owned this accout at this time and I thought the payments would just be applied to the balance. Any advise?