I was just contacted by letter by a collection agency coming after me for a $4k ($3k plus interest) debt to a college I attended in in 1998. Potentially my wife never paid the tuition, I have no prrof one way or the other. They state that they are prepared to do an asset search. This does not appear on my credit reports. If I respond to them and dispute the debt will that cause the item to reappear on my credit report? Has the reporting period and SOL run out on this and this is possibly some agency that bought some old paper and is just trying to see what they can get? Any advice would be appreciated as my credit rating is in the high 600s after lots of work and I want to make sure I make the correct moves.
Did your wife attend, but not pay the tuition, or did she finance the tuition with a loan, and not pay the loan? Did she drop out, and if so was that before or after the date for a full or partial refund? If a loan, was it a government guaranteed loan? Is this a public, state or community college, or a private college? What does the college say is the status of her account with them? Is the CA specifically threatening you, with no mention of your wife, or are they trying to collect from your wife? Is this even your wife's debt, regardless of whether it was paid, or the amount is correct or not? Have any erroneous addresses, SSNs, or DOBs, appeared on either of your credit reports? Although debts should be removed from your credit reports 7 years after they went delinquent, did you see this on your credit reports at any time before 7 years passed?
Thanks for the response. It is from when I went to college. She was in charge of paying the bills back then (what a mistake!). She can't remember whether she paid it and kept horrendous records, none of whic still exist. I withdrew shortly after the courses began but am not sure whether it was in the parial refund stage. I was paying for the courses myself, no loans or anything. The money was paid directly to the University. It had appeared on my credit report a few years ago by a different collection agency but I disputed and it has not reappeared. This is now a different collection agency. Since that time I have repaired my credit, I now handle ALL finances, I have gotten a mortgage and have prime credit cards with decent APRs and CLs. My fear is that I do not want to do anyhting that might cause this debt (paid or unpaid) to appear on my CR again. If push came to shove, to save myself from being sued, I might be willing to pay it off. Advice?
I forgot to answer one part of your question. This is a private university. I have not contacted them directly either in fear of giving this thing new life at the moment. Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!
"They state that they are prepared to do an asset search." They are trying to imply that they will sue you, without actually claiming they intend to. To threaten to sue you when they can't or don't intend to would be an FDCPA violation, so why did they go to the trouble to imply it? There is an element of bluff going on here, which may be telegraphing that they are not prepared to sue. Perhaps they know or believe it is already past SOL, or they bought the debt but without any access to the records. Since this was not a government guaranteed loan, there is a SOL. At 7 years, and after already falling off your reports, there is little they can do to force you to pay unless they could still sue. (Realize that if they do sue, and if it is past SOL, that is a defense that you must raise.) In addition, at this late date, they probably bought the debt for pennys on the dollar. There is probably no risk in asking the university about the debt, including what their records show as the date you withdrew, whether any payment was made, and the initial amount of the debt, if any. It is also possible this is not your debt, which you cannot know until the CA provides validation to you from the university. There have been cases of CAs attempting to collect from someone with a similar name to the actual debtor, and they could care less who actually pays them. You preserve your rights in the strongest manner if you request validation of the debt in writing from the CA in a timely manner. (I am not an attorney.)
What type of private university was this? A legitimate, reputable one? Or a shady one with poor compliance with state law, heavily dependent on student loans from new students? The reason I ask is that in many states, refunds are required under state law according to a schedule based on when the withdrawl occurred. Some shady colleges (usually private trade schools) have been known to ignore the law and sell the "debt" or attempt to collect it years later, ignoring the requirements of the law. Most students will not have thought to retain records of a withdrawl (which they may have submitted on realizing the quality of the classes was not worth the money), considering the matter closed once they submitted the paperwork.
