We just got a payment negotiation letter from CA for an old Discover account. This is the first letter about this account in over 8 years. The date of delinquency is more than 7 1/2 years old. As expected they are willing to settle for 1/2 the amount owed. It does not appear on my fiancees credit report. Does he need to dispute or cease and desist to get rid of the CA? From what I have read, they are no legally able to report to CRA because the SOL has expired. But I am not sure if ignoring them will do any good. I have read tons of posts on this forum and get all sorts of different advice. Any help from people with the same situation or first hand knowledge would be very much appreciate.
I read many posts "Do Not Reply" as this will automatically acknowledge you as the debtor and re-open an old case and may cause 7 more years of trouble which may impact your credit report.
Now you can read a post which says all those posts you have read saying that are trying to blow smoke in your eyes and cause you to spread false and misleading information.
They can't report it to a CRA so you probably won't see it on the credit report, but.. They can sue your fiance for the debt, even if it's old. If they do, it's up to you to raise the SOL as an affirmative defense. Whether or not they'll sue is hard to say. The best action at this point? Send a dispute and request for validation letter so you retain your rights under the FDCPA. You might also add the cease and desist language so they'll move on to the next sucker. Replying with a DV letter will NOT reage the account, just don't say any more than you have to and don't say anything about "my" debt.
