I have a question regarding credit repair/repayment of debt. I suffered a business failure over 2 1/2 years ago and my credit rating tanked as a result of inability to make timely payments and repay debt. The good news is I am okay now; I secured a good job and have been promoted several times and finally satisfied the more serious issues/debts impacting my credit (IRS etc). The only outstanding debt I have not dealt with are my credit card accounts. Here is the issue. At the time my business failed I had a cumulative credit card debt of under $10,000 (five cards); not a major amount but I got behind and my income was not sufficient to manage the payments. I did not want to lose the accounts and so I made a concerted effort to catch up and bring the accounts current. At one stage I was working three jobs and at points most accounts were up to date, but in the end it was a losing battle. As I had gone slightly over limit on most cards I was being assessed monthly over limit fees as well as late fees...in most instances an additional $65-$75 per month, per card, in addition to the regularly scheduled payments. I recall some months where I was paying $600-$700 per month just to keep my head above water, and there were numerous occasions where I was under my limit but the late fee pushed me over so I was paying both fees instead of just the one. I contacted all account holders in an effort to work things out...they could see that I was making payments every month but that the fees were killing me. Unfortunately, with one exception, no one was willing to work with me, or to reduce fees or to put a stop on over limit fees while I was attempting to catch up. After six months of pumping a large part of my income into the effort it became fruitless and so I just stopped paying on all cards and focused on catching everything else up, which I eventually did. The problem is all accounts were ultimately charged off and passed on to collection agencies...and after a year or two even these entities stopped contacting me. So...I have these five charge offs on my credit report, and at this point all are several years old. Now that everything else is caught up and my income has increased substantially, I would like to work out a payment plan to satisfy these debts. But I would only want to work with the account holders, not collection agencies (would be impossible to find out who held these bad debts now anyway and they are no longer contacting me). Is this even possible? Would account holders want to work with a charged off account or would these be off their books completely? As much as I want to pay my debts, is is better for me to just move on? Would I just be wasting my money since the accounts are charged off and no one is even contacting me at this stage? Or would it even improve my credit standing if I went back and tried to do something about these accounts now? Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!
I would check to see if those accounts are out of SOL for your state. Chances are the original creditors have sold the debt to a CA for pennies on the dollar and will likely not accept payments from you but would request you pay the CA instead. There are always variables to that though. CA has likely added all kinds of "fees" & "interest" resulting in a much higher amount than the original debt is for. In all honesty the OC in this scenario has already sold the debt, by paying whatever the CA says you owe & paying thier high rates is just putting money in the CA's pocket. Credit wise if the debts are already pretty old paying them now will likely not raise your score much. I understand you wanting to make things right as I share the same philosophy. Have you pulled a current copy of all 3 of your reports from the CRA's? If not then that is your first step to see what is on each one & how they are reporting. The debts that have been sold should say "Sold to another lender" or some such jargon. There may be a seperate entry on the credit report from the CA that bought it. And it may have been sold yet again to another CA. There may be some debts that have not been sold by the original creditor. Those, according to your personal beliefs may be ones you would want to work something out with. Personally, the debts that have been sold and are in the hands of a CA I would make sure were out of SOL and try to dispute them off my credit report with the CRA's and if that failed follow the path to debt validating with the CA and try to get them removed. That in itself is a whole nother ballgame which will require careful work on your part. So read & research that carefully. There are alot of higher ups on this board that can give you good direction on that. Hope this helps a little, good luck! I'm not one of the pros, just another credit repairer who has encountered some of these issues. Tegleg
Hey Tegleg, its katz55. You answered a couple of my questions in another post. This post is also very similar to my situation regarding falling behind, but being in a position now to try and fix. Many of my accounts are really old and are with CAs but may have reached SOL status. I have changed addresses and phone #'s to where I am not being hounded but would like to clean it up once and for all. When you say above to check the state's SOL, how do you determine what state. Is is the state where one lived when one opened account(Ca), state one lived in when account went delinquent(Pa), or state where one currently resides(Fl)?? Also, when there is an entry from an OC that says "sold to another lender", but there is no separate entry from the Ca, where should we dispute??
Thank you for the info - yes, the debts have been sold and as it has been a few years the OC's will probably not deal with me directly (and I have a real problem dealing the collection agencies). If paying anything back at this point will have a negligible effect on my score then it doesn't seem to make sense. Obviously my goal would be to deal with the OC's and work out a payment plan, and have my credit score rise a result. It sounds like that's not going to happen, but perhaps someone else had additional info on this. I am in the process of securing all three credit reports and proceeding from there. One thing I am curious about, but have no knowledge of whatsoever, is disputing the debts off my report, or following the debt validation process. Does anyone know of a good resource for my info on this. Thanks!
For both of you, The most recent list of SOL can be looked at here, I don't know of others as this site is all I have used. www.whychat.5u.com I hope it's ok to post that link. Scroll down to the following: Meaning of SOL States Statute of Limitations That should give you an idea of SOL. Plus it's a very good site you both will find alot of info there about disputing, debt validating and medical collections. As to when the debt occurred in one state & defaulted in another I am not absolutley sure of that answer. Maybye one of the higher ups can answer that one. I have seen different answers to that. Calling higher ups please! In the case where it says it has been sold but there is no CA listed, determine first if it is out of sol then if it is you can call the original creditor and find out where it was sold to. I've done this & to also verify the acct number. If it is within sol you may opt to wait until it is sol unless you wish to deal with waking the CA up. TJboy most of what you seek is here on this site, Do a search & if there is something you can't find or don't understand make a post about it for the board to review. I know it can be hard to navigate sometimes so just ask. Most of all, take it slow, one thing at a time. I speak from experience, I tackled too much at once, got burned out & frustrated & ended up having to take a break. But the results, no matter how slow are worth it. I had a Chap 7 BK in 2002 & when I stated repair all my scores where in the low to high 500's and I had no credit at all. A year later and a whole lot of work later my scores are 664, 685 & 719, I have some credit with decent limits and finally got a house. I'm not there yet but I will be. You will too it just takes time & work & alot of patience. Good luck hopefully a higher up will answer the sol question soon. Tegleg
Statute of limitations / a time period that creditors or their collection goons can sue you for non-payment from the time of last activity. Google statute of limitations. There is a listing of all the states' SOLS, and other explanations.
Thank you Greg =D This was the question as posted: Quote "When you say above to check the state's SOL, how do you determine what state. Is is the state where one lived when one opened account(Ca), state one lived in when account went delinquent(Pa), or state where one currently resides(Fl)?? That is the one I am not sure how to answer. Thanks, Tegleg
FYI, to my understanding if u make a payment at anytime the SOL starts all over again!! Therefore if you have a short period left b4 u hit the SOL, I wouldn't bother paying at all!!
It depends on the state whether or not a payment resets the SOL. In some states, a promise to pay (even if you change your mind and never send payment) can reset the SOL. So you need to check your state's laws. And Greg is not entirely right. Except for a few states, you can be sued any time for a debt--even when the statute of limitations has expired. You can use the SOL as an affirmative defense, but this means you must reply to the suit, show up, and assert the defense. Otherwise the creditor can still obtain a judgment against you, even after the SOL has passed.
