Here's my situation: My wife and I both were employed by the same company, both lost our jobs on the same day when the company folded. Spent 1 year trying to find work in a small town to support us and our kids....scraped by but let many bills and debts pile up. I went back to school, recieved my AAS and am working on my BSIT and have a good career now. I have some old debt still (about 3-4 years old) showing on my credit report, I want to now pay it off, but I am afraid I will get "stuck" with poor credit even after they are paid....here is why I say that: One company has charged-off my account, in 2002 I started getting collection notices for this account, from several different agencies...sometimes the agency letters would come a week apart, from two different agencies. I have moved several times, and so I no longer recieve the letters, but in knowing I owe the debt and wishing to make right on my past, I am confronted with the following: My credit report shows that the account is an active account with the OC that was most recently updated just this month as being a past due, charge-off. There have been no CA's show on my report for this account, but the OC keeps updating it each month on my credit report as their account, even though others have tried to collect on it. first, can they keep updating every month once it is charged-off and two can they keep updating it every month if it is actively being persued by a CA who does not report it? Lastly, when I pay this, should I request that they stop updating it and change the status to paid->charge-off or some other indication that it was in fact paid, but it was still a charge-off? Thanks in advance, bfwest
Be careful. If you pay it now, you will probably end up with another 7 years of reporting since the DOLA is the date that starts the 7 year clock ticking... Are they hurting your credit that badly? Have you opened & maintained positive TL's since then? If so, I would not mess with them unless they will do a PFD. I would not talk to them on the phone unless you are in a state where you can record the conversation. I would send letters only, CMRR.
The 7 year reporting period starts from when you first went delinquent on the debt, from which it was never brought current, or at most 180 days after that first default. Paying the debt does not reset the date of first delinquency. See FCRA. If you paid, they would be reporting erroneously if they continued to report as unpaid.
