Old Credit Problems

[Zegel]

I just found out that I have a collection account open against me when I ordered my free credit report from Experian, and I'm fairly untrained in these matters so hopefully someone can give me a bit of advice . Here's the backstory:

About 6 or so years ago when I was in college my car got towed. The thing was parked way in the back of my appartment complex and it barely ran, so I had been carpooling to school with one of my roommates - I didnt even noticed it had been towed for about two weeks. When I called the towing company they wanted to charge me something like 400 bucks for it, since they charged a 25/day fee. I had a huge problem with that since they never even notifed me that it had been towed. What if I had been out of town for the summer? What if I didnt figure out the fact that I needed to go to the Apparenment complex owners to figure out who had towed it?

So I decided to not pay it. The car was barely worth that much as it was and I had already aquired another. Things went okay for a few months until they sent me a collection letter demanding the 400 dollars. I sent a letter back offering that they could just keep the car and do whatever they want with it. That was the last I ever heard from them (I lived at that address another two years after the incident, so they should have been able to contact me if the deal wasnt okay with them).

Apparently instead of contact me further they just continued to rack up the charges. Now when I look at my credit report I have a $1700 collection account in open/active status.

What should I do about this? I feel that I dont owe them the money, but I obviously handled it in a poor manner. I've heard that negative accounts fall off of your credit after 7 years, but would that hold true for an active account? I dont know that they're even trying to contact me at this point and I've moved several times since they towed the vehicle (without forwarding my address), so if they were they would have a very hard time doing so. I could contact them and try to work it out, but I doubt they're going to be very understanding and it would just bring my account to their attention.

[SirLance]

Contact a consumer law attorney in your area and get some advice.

[pppg]

Originally Posted by SirLance

Contact a consumer law attorney in your area and get some advice.

I second this advice. Since it is an open account it will not fall off your record. This might be a tough one to work out, but I'd do it as soon as you can.

[mosha]

I would first write a letter to the collection agency and get them to verify the debt. If they cant verify within 30 days then they have to delete it. During the same 30 day period contact the credit agency, experian or whomever and tell them the debt isn't yours. this will make the collection agency also have to verify the debt with the credit agency. typically the collection agency can not verify to both you and the credit agency within 30 days which makes it come right off.

if they do verify sometimes you can get the credit agency to do a "pay to delete" meaning they will delete the record from your credit if you pay the debt. make sure you have all this in writing before you pay it though.


make sure you keep copies of all letters you send and try to send them certified so you have a date stamp and return receipt.

finally it should come off after 7 years anyway

[Marvelous Marv]

I think it's no longer an open account if it's been turned over to a collection agency.