As I start to try to pay off debt/repair credit I realize I should have found this site first, I think I just made life hard on myself by calling creditors in August/September and starting good faith payments on old accounts (all verbal promises, with automatic credit-card deductions). I found this on an old thread; "There are several ways to toll the SOL. If you make a promise to pay or any payment during this time period, it tolls the SOL also. Other ways to toll the SOL are verbal agreements, acknowledgement of the debt, being incarcerated, etc. Make sure you haven't inadvertently tolled the SOL before you intend to use it." Since most of these accounts probably defaulted in 2000 or before (except a California Phone bill which did so in 2001/2) they were probably all out of SOL, however I am wondering from the above statement if my payment IN NY on the NY accounts at least; 1) Re-set SOL i.e. it is now 7 years out 2) Had no effect (verbal) 3) Simply *paused* the SOL, i.e. if I don't make anymore payments there will be mo more SOL issue.
You should also look into whether in your state an out-of-SOL claim can be revived by payment. Revival versus tolling or resetting of a still-running clock may be an important distinction.
I want to say the recent payments will renew the SOL, however, I haven't been able to find the specific rule (too many to sort through). NY has a 6 year SOL.
