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Originally Posted by toverfie
Hi Soup,
Here's my story......1997 was a bad year and I sought legal advice for relief on a credit card (approx $3k). The attorney said don't pay another nickel to them, instead pay us for two years ($39.00 per month) and we will settle with them for you at pennies on the dollar. In June of 2002 the lawyer contacted me with an offer to settle for about $1700. They did the deal but I never recieved any correspondence (that I recall) stating that this matter was resolved. The only thing I saw was that the credit card company had reduced the amount they were reporting I owed on my credit report. Also, the lawyer had moved out of state and then out of business....Obviously I made some poor choices and then some more after that....
In the summer of 2003 I began the process of cleaning up my act and paying off old debts and judgements in order to buy a house. My mortgage broker went through my credit report line by line and told me what I would have to pay off in order to qualify. For this particular debt, he said that the card had probably accepted the payoff and the balance stayed in some type of write-off status....Anyway, I got the mortgage and never sent another dime to the card company. My credit score is about 640 and I have opened other credit accounts since then, but also have been turned down by one. Now, that old debt has apparently been bought by some collection agency and they are hounding me for about $1k to pay off the debt or send them in writing that I dispute (I'm guessing it will be impossible to prove I settled with the card in 2002 since the only thing I have is the payment that they recorded). I don't need any credit in the near future and expect that this thing will drop off my report soon. Will it drop off soon? I quit paying them in 1997 except for the one lawyer payment in 2002. Will it go away 7 years from 97 (which is perhaps why it got bought and someone is trying to make a buck off it) or 7 years from 2002? Maybe I need to look at my credit report to determine this...if so, can you tell me what I should look for regarding this account? I'm thinking they can rot in hell since my credit isn't too bad, I don't need any credit right now, and it might be dropping off my report real soon. Please let me know what you think and how I can make sure it goes away in the proper amount of time....
Cheers
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In theory, it should fall off 7 years after the collection was opened, so it really depends on when that was. Cynthetiq was right on the money when he said that it causes issues when companies sell debts back and forth to each other. Had that not been sold to a collection company, it would have fallen off 7 years after that "write-off" status had been put on your report. The next time the collection agency calls you, see if they are willing to negotiate a lower fee in order to clear the debt.
I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, just ask!