Hello everyone, Thanks for all the great advice you have passed along this website; I have learned so much. Question: My husband has some past debts he needs to resolve. Before we married in 1997, we ran into financial difficulties for one reason or another (when it rained, it poured that year). He has about 5 or 6 outstanding credit cards that were never paid but appear on his credit reports as charged off. Most creditors/collection agencies have stopped contacting us (we have one or two that are still persistant). We would like to take care of these as I am afraid of what will happen if we don't (judgements, garnishment, etc). We just don't know where to begin. Any advice as to where to start and what to do? CR
What state are you in, and what are the dates of last activity for each of these? You need to find out if they are within statute of limitations or not. That will somewhat direct your next step.
jlynn According to his most recent transunion credit report, 4 are listed as closed between 5/97 and 8/97 and marked on the report as "charged off/bad debt". There are two from Citibank with no date closed and are marked "collection account" (I believe these are our two persistant collection agencies). We live in California. Thanks, CR
There is a difference between when the account was closed and when the last activity is, check the reports and see if there is any information on date of last activity. Good luck, I will be watching this thread as it hits close to home for me too. Vixie
Vixie, The only report we have at this time is an online Transunion report. I looked again, but do not see any last activity line. The only other line I see is the Updated line. Any ideas? Thanks, CR
If you get a report from Equifax, they will have a "Date of Last Activity" From Experian it will say "scheduled to remain on record until", then you only have to subtract 7 years to figure out the DOLA. I'm showing the SOL for CA is 4 years. Anybody know if that is incorrect? If the SOL is right, and it was 96-97, you will be able to charge forward anyway you choose to try and get these off your reports without worry of being sued.
BTW - its a good idea to get all three reports anyways. When you start trying to clear these up, you want to group your efforts by accounts, not by CRAs, it will save you from duplication. Not all cc's report to all 3 CRAs - in other words each of your reports will probably differ a bit.
One thing I will add to this thread ... In most cases, if you are cleaning up your reports to get a mortgage, these unpaid charge offs will have to resolved (paid, settled or deleted) before you can close the deal, no matter what your score is. so please keep that in mind. As for advice ... I'm not sure I understand what your question is ... Are you asking what steps you should take? I would think the first thing to do is send validation letters to those collection agencies that are contacting you. Check out LBrown's signature on any post ... he has a nice link there about "what is validation" that should explain that tactic in detail. But before diving in, I would recommend reading (or re-reading if the case may be) the FAQs and PyschDoc's primer which are anchored as threads at the top of this forum. Those threads really help you break down the process and WHY you are doing the things that are recommended. It takes a few reads to get a solid grasp, but once it clicks, it will help you plot your stategy better. Hope this helps and good luck! peace, delilah
Check out LBrown's signature on any post ... he has a nice link there about "what is validation" that should explain that tactic in detail. delilah131 =============== Here is another link to a good read on the subject. Validation must reads Per Humblemarc http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=343640#post343640 THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'""""""""" http://www.send4fun.com/telephone.htm
