i have a account that dates back on the last payment i can recall was in 1994 just got a letter today from midland credit Management saying they just brought the account from citgo account #xxxxxxxxxx current balance 221.00 payment due 10-25-07 now i know that reaging this debt is illegal not sure if it is on my credit report as of yet --should i call them and tell them about reaging or send what type of letter and maybe someone can leave me a sample of the right letter or tell me what i need to do???
Your best first step would probably be to dispute with the credit bureaus showing that re aging has occurred. You must establish that you have exhausted all of your administrative remedies before you can go to court which in the final analysis is the only way to cure the problem if you can't do it through disputes with the credit bureaus.
Reaging is illegal, but there's nothing against buying an old debt (for pennies on the dollar) and trying to collect. What they will try to do is get you to reset the SOL date by getting you to pay, agree to pay, or otherwise breath life back into the old debt. Once they do that, you're back on the hook so be careful.
That is all absolutely correct of course, but what will reset the SOL depends on state and in some cases federal law. Although some states may have very similar laws regarding what will or will not reset the SOL some are totally different. You have to be familiar with the laws in your own state and often they can be very confusing. SOL law is not nearly as cut and dried as the multitudes of postings on this and other boards would seem to make it out to be. Some state laws say that the only way to reset the SOL on a debt is to pay the debt in full to the original creditor and the original creditor must return the account to a fully current and good standing. Other states say that even so much as a promise will reset the SOL and still others say that payment of any sum of money resets the SOL so you must check the laws in your state to really know what does or does not reset the SOL.
Without commenting on the above, the best course of action for the OP would be to immediately invoke your FDCPA rights by demanding complete Validation of this debt. The letter should also say that you dispute the entire matter and that any telephone contact is inconvenient. As far as the SOL is concerned, the safest course of conduct is to not make any payments or promises of payments, nor should you admit any knowledge of the debt until you receive proof.
The best advice so far for your situation. I only add that you should check your credit reports to ensure that it is NOT reported. Most likely it is not, but you have violations if it is reported.
I'd agree with that. If you have debts which are not on your credit reports and you pay them you will wake them up and might get them to reporting which you wouldn't want. Another thing that you most definitely don't want to do with debts that are past SOL or neariy past SOL is to demand validation of the debt. That would wake them up too and get them started trying to collect. They might even realize that they are getting close to the SOL running out on them and rush to lawsuit and judgment. You can demand validation of the debt at any time, but if you received their initial demand letter more than 30 days ago then you have lost a valuable protection of FDCPA which is that they may not proceed with collection activity until they have validated the debt and the right to sue for overshadowing. So unless you have a serious need to pay off the particular debt in question and they aren't bothering you then you may want to ignore them and let them alone. Paying debts more than 2 or 3 years old will not improve your credit scores enough to be worth the price of paying them. Might not improve them at all. You will get a lot more bang for the buck by paying your good tradelines down than you will by paying off old debts.
To summarize: 1) Check your credit reports to see if this tradeline (by MCM) is reported. It should not be, but verify. If it is there, dispute with the CRAs. 2) Send a Request for Debt Validation, use one of the forum sample letters, and send Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested (CMRRR). If you received this "Notice" on 8/25/07, then you need to save your rights under the FDCPA by requesting full validation w/in 30 days of receipt. It is doubtful MCM will even respond, and this may be the end of it. But, be aware thay may sell this debt to another CA, and you may have to do this process all over again.
