I have a 'sleeping dragon' on my reports and am looking for some guidance. Any help is appreciated. I've had two accounts with sears since 1995. Totalling about $4500 together, they are a BEAST on my CRs. Sears naturally passed these to a CA (Portfolio Recovery Associates) but its been so long that they've closed my accounts also. So now I've got 4 nasty closed accounts on my CRs. I really wouldn't mind settling these accounts, but I'm kind of scared to start digging around. My reports show no indication of what CA my accounts were passed to. I really want these off my reports! What would you do? a. Dispute them all with the CRAs and just try to get them off my CRs? b. Send verification to....well, I don't know...but send verification? c. Go digging around (maybe call Sears) and find out who has my accounts and try to settle? 'c' sounds kinda scary. I'd hate for it to be someone like Sherman, you know? Again, any advice or guidance is appreciated.
Its always tricky with those that are past SOL but still within the 7 years reporting. I can only see paying if you get full and complete deletion, otherwise whats the point since they cant legally collect anything. Also they dreaded re-aging issue may come up. I would say remove addresses, then dispute as not-mine with the cra's before I would poke the sleeping dragon. Sears has a rep as being tough and aggressive from reading the boards. I too have been wrestling with a similar issue. Go get'em!
