Do collection accounts age off your credit report after 7 years?
So I have debt from store lines of credit to a bank credit card. I haven't paid on them since at LATEST December 2007. Chase, citi financial (store line of credit) and Sears line of credit all have it showing closed but I am getting reporting from some debt collector companies.
I live in Arizona and just ordered my actual credit report today. I viewed the information online through a credit score tracking website. I read a lot of comments and researched online somethings. My questions are can any of them take me to court still because from what I read some debts are 3 years and some are 6 here in Arizona, I am not sure what they fall under, also at 7 years they have to stop reporting to my credit so I am told. Does this mean that it will show the old reports but they cant continue to report and since the original lenders have the accounts closed can the debt collector who purchased the debt also show up as a closed account or do they just disappear forever?
Any information to better understand when or if this will ever not be an issue for me would be helpful, as these debts were ran up by my ex and are thousands of dollars I cant and haven't been able to afford to even attempt to fix.
Do collection accounts get removed from my credit reports after 7 years?
—Jennifer
Original lenders and creditors show payment default on your credit reports for up to 7 years from when you stopped paying on the account.
When you first miss payments to a creditor or lender, you will see late pays show up in 30 day blocks of time on your credit report. If the accounts remain unpaid long enough, those 30 day incremental late pays turn into a charge off reporting on your credit. With credit cards, charge offs normally occur within 180 days of consecutively missed payments (they can happen sooner than 180 days).
The 7 years the negative item stays on your credit report starts from the first missed payment to your lender.
When your accounts get this far behind, it is standard to have the account placed with outside collection agencies, and often repeatedly. Many creditors have a practice of selling off debts that remain unpaid long enough to debt buyers. They are legally transferring the rights to the debt to someone else, as is often laid out in your original contract with them.
Collection Agencies and Debt Buyers Showing Up on Your Credit Report
When an additional entry from a collection agency shows up on your credit report it is important to look for some key items:
- Is the new entry showing a balance due? A debt buyer who reports a collection account to the credit bureaus with a balance owed should be matched with the original lenders negative credit reporting to be certain that the original lender no longer shows a balance is owed to them. You should not have more than one credit entry showing an unpaid and due amount on your report for the same bill.
- Does the collection account show a date of last activity on your report that is different than the date your original lender is showing? Collection accounts that are reporting separate from, but related to an existing negative item on your report, should not show a newer date. If a newer date is used by a collection agency reporting, it prolongs the credit damage and will take longer for you to improve your credit.
All negative trade lines related to the same collection account should age off of your credit report at the same 7 year mark you use to calculate your first missed payment to your original lender. The exception used to be when people got sued for collection and ended up with a judgment over one or more of the debts – which would show in the public records section of your credit report for 7 years from the date judgment was entered in the court.
Most judgments obtained in state courts were taken off our credit reports with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion as of July 2017
What to Do If You Need to Dispute a Collection Account on Your Report
I will have an upcoming article about disputing incorrect information on your credit report, but for now, it is important to consider the following:
If your debt is within the SOL (statute of limitations), to legitimately sue you for collection, you should carefully consider whether or not to send a dispute about a collection account on your credit report, even if it is showing incorrect information. When there is still room on the clock to sue you, sending a dispute may wake the collector to the fact that you are:
- Still an unpaid account.
- Care enough to start cleaning up your credit report (usually for some credit goals, which means you are more collectible).
If your debts are beyond the SOL to sue you legitimately, you should have less concern about waking a sleepy debt collector who may not have been bothering you, with disputes about getting your credit reports corrected.
Legislation was passed in 2011 that changed the SOL from 3 to 6 years in Arizona. Given the information you shared about 2007 being the earliest date of last payment, your debts may/may not be off of the current debt owner’s radar. You would need to be certain about the date each of account was last paid. Any of them you know were paid last in 2006 would be clear of the SOL.
Reviewing your credit reports for accuracy when you know you have old collection items is important. Staying on top of when and how to get your credit reports corrected will help you plan for future access to credit at fair prices.
If you have a particular issue or question you can post in the comments below for feedback.
About Michael BoveeMichael started CRN in 2004 with a mission to provide people in need with detailed debt and credit help and education. Michael has participated as an expert panelist in federal consumer protection rule making, collaborated on state law changes governing debt consolidation, has worked as an expert witness in court matters related to the debt relief industry. He is available to speak with you about your financial struggle and helps people resolve their debt problems daily.
Hello Michael,
I have 2 charge-offs past the 7-year mark since my last missed payment with the original creditors. RiseCredit and Capitol One are the original creditors. Both negative marks appear on my credit report by the collection agencies with more recent dates. I have an email trail that confirms my last payment to Capitol One. However, the RiseCredit email trail doesn’t exist. I’ve looked for correspondence with them, but I may have thrown it away. How should I handle the dispute regarding Rise without proof of the date since my last missed payment? I’ve managed to get my scores just over 700, but these 2 negative marks are keeping it lower.
Finally, I don’t carry any credit on my credit cards, but I keep them open for my score. A few years ago, I missed a month’s payment with 2 credit card companies. This is also hurting my score. Should I write a letter to them asking them to remove that “30 days late” from my report? They’ve both given me increased credit recently, so maybe it’s worth a shot?
Thank you for your assistance.
I am in Washington state can you give me that list of debt attorneys in the Seattle Bremerton area. Also I would like to know how long it takes for judgement and bad debts to fall off my credit report here.
You may only need one debt defense contact in Washington, and that is Kirk Miller. He is in Spokane but works with people all over the state.
Check out these resources:
https://consumerrecoverynetwork.com/question/collection-accounts-age-off-credit-reports/
https://consumerrecoverynetwork.com/question/judgment-collection-removed-from-credit-report-public-record/
Can a student loan from 2004 that closed in 2009 be put back on my account add with new money added today this happened my score dropped 54 points
The time limit for negative credit reporting like this is up to 7 and one half years. What month and year did you stop sending in payments? Who is it that is now showing on your credit reports for the loan?
Hi, i have recently retrieved all of my credit reports and it seems as if most of my old debt has been aged off (all except one). i recently received a bill from a lawyers office saying that i owe some money, but it doesn’t show in my credit report anymore. Also, i received a call from someone saying that they were calling with some legal documents for me but i just told them that they had the wrong number. Am i obligated to pay that? It no longer shows on my credit report and the original credit card was from 2009. I live in NYS. (also, this card never sent me to court either because i’ve never received any documents of that sort. Could they try to take me to court now after so long?)
The SOL in NY is passed if you stopped paying on this in 2009.
What is the name of the collection law office contacting you?
I have a question, a judgment that was remove from my credit report because it was there for over 7 years can be put back on my credit report by another debt collector? I got a letter from a collector saying they bought the debt and are asking from payment. I am afraid they might put the debt back on my credit report? I live in virginia
No, at least not legitimately. If that were to happen you could dispute it off your credit reports quickly.
The real problem is a judgment debt means they can garnish wages, levy your bank account, and lien property. The judgment is good for 20 years in Virginia and can be renewed for another 20.
Have a lawyer in Virginia(collection agency) trying to sue me in Maryland on an account where the last payment was over 7 years ago. I know it has been that long as the account no longer shows up on my credit report. It dropped off last summer. How do I respond to the suit if I don’t have proof that the account is well beyond the SOL?
Talk to an experienced debt collection defense attorney in your state. But the gist is that you want to defend this to the point where they have to prove their claim is valid, so you assert the debt is time barred in your filings with the court.
I can email you a list of attorneys you can speak with in Maryland if you like?
My daughter in law shared an apartment in 2010 and now a collection agency is telling her she owes $5,000 in Oregon do you know if their is a Statute of limitations on a utility bill?
There is a 6 year SOL to file a legitimate lawsuit in Oregon. The unpaid bill has up to a 7 and one half year SOL to remain on her credit reports.
I had an account with T-Mobile many years ago. I know for sure it has been past the statue of limitations..I’m thinking at least 10 years ago. Recently a few things finally fell off my credit report because it had been over the 7.5 years…I finally realized what T-Mobile is doing…or the debt collection agencies are doing. It looks as though they keep passing this account on or selling the debt over and over again, now the issue I am having is that each time they do this and there is a new collection agency listed on my credit report they are changing the “opened date” which is making it look like this is a new debt when in actuality it is really really old and shouldn’t even be on my credit report…and should have been charged off approx 10 years ago. Now the new open date on this account shows October of 2016…how do I find out the original date that I opened the T-Mobile account and also when I stopped paying it…so I can prove to equifax it is old…I had disputed it through transition…now its not on my transition report anymore…now it is on the equifax one. The thong that gets me is its only $500 !!
If you know it is that old I would file a credit reporting complaint with the CFPB against the collection agency. Read through that link.
I’ve seen my accounts in collections, using Credit Karma, and there is one bill that reports Last Activity as 3 days ago. But this debt is from 2012, I haven’t paid anything since then, it’s now with a collections agency. Are they trying to re-age the debt or something? It says “Last reported” but then when I read more about it it says “last activity.” I have never, ever contacted them so there is no way there has been any activity at all from me. It’s a fairly small debt but since it’s from 2012, I was just going to wait for it to drop off. I’ve read it’s rarely a good idea to contact and acknowledge the debt, so I don’t want to do that. When it is supposed to drop off in 2019, will I be able to then challenge any fake “last activity” reports? They will have to prove that I contacted them, right? And they won’t be able to because I didn’t. Or does this “last reported” and “last activity” just mean that they’re reporting that the debt is still in collections?
What is the name of the collection agency or creditor reporting?
I been told if a credit card company that you owe a balance to, if they haven’t contacted you over a certain amount of time exa. 7 years, that the balance you owe should fall off your credit? Please respond
P.s. I live in Michigan, I haven’t spoken to anyone from
A credit card place or answered any calls in over maybe 7 years. Is it law that the credit card company Discover, Sears or whoever should fall off your credit? Due to what I heard and just read on your #Wonderful helpful article, it seems the debt should legally fall off
It has more to do with when you stopped paying. After as much as 7 and one half years from when you stopped paying, or missed payments, the negative would typically come off your credit reports. You have to monitor that it does though. Mistakes happen and no one is watching out for your credit reports but you.
Aren’t collection companies required to report a paid debt to the various credit bureaus?
Normally, once you resolve a debt to zero due, the debt collectors and creditors that are furnishing information about that account to the bureaus will update them to show paid.
Who is the collection agency and creditor you are dealing with? When did you pay or settle the debt?
I just got a new credit card and I’m trying to build my score but now that I have done this I got a call from someone about an old Texaco credit card that I never payed back but that Texaco card is like 13 or more years ago what I want to know is can I be sued now for that money or has it been to long should I not worry about it or do I need to start to pay this old card off now or not I’m a stay home mom I don’t work my now husband works but I’m limited to his funds so what do I do can can they now come aftere all over again also when I was talking to the collection agency guy he got me to give my credit card info to set up a pay arangment but I told him after I gave it to him that I wanted to have it removed because I had not talked to my husband yet and I don’t know now whether I reactivated my old account not to be sued can u help me answer this thank
What state are you in?
In 2011 I have no health insurance and acquired a rather large hospital bill, it’s now down to 11,400 . It was sold to cornerstone credit by the hospital . I live in Alaska and most people get a PFD every year.. the issue is I never get one because cornerstone has listed the bills one at a time , so instead of one bad report on my account I have like 12 of many different amounts.. I am low income and can’t work due to my accident and just want it gone .. is there anything I can do? I already tried to talk to the hospital for years many times they say there ha do are tied and take it up with cornerstone credit…. any ideas?
Were you ever sued for the debts?
Hi Mikeal, an old cc debt is still on my credi report and my bank says I have to pay it at my mortgage closing, the last payment on the cc will be 6 years and 2 days, at closing date.I know the statue of limitations in NY is 6 years from the last payment.
My question is why is the bank telling me that it has to be paid if the SOL is up
Thanks foe responding, Bill
That is just how they mortgage underwriting is done. Before the recession and housing implosion you could sometimes get a loan through with unpaid debts passed your state SOL. That is not the case anymore. You have to have be able to show you resolved it by settling for less, or in some cases, show you are making agreed upon monthly payments for several months.
Who is the debt owed to and what is the balance?
Yes my name rickey morrow i opening account in August 1 2oo7 have married problem an im trying to get my credit right it 2016 it still on my credit report what shall it do
When did you stop sending in your payments on this account?
Me and my wife had a hard hit in our income about 5+ years ago and have credit cards that have not been payed and put off to collection agency’s can they still come after the money and what’s the best way to start to repair our credit we live in fl
Who are the creditors?
When exactly did you stop making your minimum monthly credit card payments?
All credit cards. Welsfargo citi bank home depot walmart pottery barn all have been right at 5 Years not sure on the exact of hand
It is important to know precisely when you stopped paying. The SOL to sue in Florida on credit cards can be 5 years. If they cannot sue to collect, and you have another 2 to 2 and one half years before these accounts drop from your credit, you may want a compelling reason to go and settle them. You can drive good bargains when they can no longer file a legitimate lawsuit.
You can still be called by debt collectors and be send notices in the mail after the time to sue has passed. That can even continue after this all drops off your credit. But there is no real teeth behind the bark.
I would not take many steps to improve my credit other than a secured credit card, or perhaps a not so great auto loan (only if I need dependable transportation and cannot pay for a car up front, but have a reliable income). You will make rapid progress with improving your credit scores after these fall off.
Hi Michael;
I live in Georgia and have accounts on my credit report where the last payment was made in 8/2011, however Portfolio Recovery (PR) picked up the account in 12/2011 and is reporting the account as in collections monthly.
This is adversely affecting my credit. How can I get PR to stop reporting in collections and have these removed my credit report?
Thank you
B
If the debt is legitimate you are going to have a hard time getting PRA off of your credit reports. You could settle them for less and get that fact updated to your credit. The resolved collections will allow you to make strides with some financial goals, like getting a new mortgage.
Recieved certified letter from LVNV Funding garnishee my bank on old debt that’s no longer on my crdt report.
But they started with letters before it came off.
Should I contact an atty.
It is always a good idea to contact an attorney about legal issues. I would encourage you to talk to one with debt collection defense experience. What state do you live in? I can email you a list with the experience you need if you like?
Hi,
My husband & I have accumulated a lot of debt ranging from credit cards to bank loans. We had excellent credit score ten years back but then we had a very bad financial hit. But now my husband is back to making good money. My questions are:
1. Is settling the account better than paying in full for my credit history & credit score? We can afford to settle all accounts in one year but would only be able to pay all accounts in full with payment plans in six years
2. How is credit score calculated?
3. How many years does it take for my credit score to go up an how?
Thanks
Lisa
When did your regular monthly minimums payments to your original lenders stop?
Check out this article about how to repair your credit after a rough patch.
This Question is about confusing Credit Report Dates and Student Loans. I have FFEL Stafford Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans from 1995 and 1996. I have an additional FFEL Loans (same kind) from 2003 and 2004. I Consolidated these in 2005. Yes I am in Default but that’s a different topic. The originator of the first set of loans held them until 2005 (no payment history) when the Consolidation was done through a new holder.
My 2008 Credit Report is a nightmare of confusing “Account Opened ” dates such as “Opened July 1995 transferred to new holder June 2005, Status never late (no payments ever made). The 2005 appears to be the Consolidation date. BUT a more recent Credit Report has that NEW Holder as “Account Opened 2013 but placed with collections as 2012. I have been trying for years to Navigate the Permanent Disability Forgiveness mess. Coincidentally that 2013 date was the date of another attempt at the Disability Discharge Paperwork.
In 2015 I tried to get the Disability Discharge paperwork through again but missed a deadline. So last month I was alerted that A negative Report had hit my Credit Report. It appears that the Holder of the Consolidation Loans that had long since defaulted had reported to ONE Credit Bureau an “Account opened date of 2013 and shows its active and open but is listing an original holder on the loan as a Bank I never heard of.
Also, even though they went into default and were permanently assigned to the Government this occurred long enough ago that they had aged off ALL 3 Credit Reports in December 2015.
These are FFEL Consolidation loans through GLHEC so they are Federal not private. Am I mistaken that it appears these are being re-aged by GLHEC? And since the Consolidation Loans are through GLHEC why would they report them now under the First Loan Originator? Shouldn’t they be only listed as GLHEC since that is who I got the Consolidation loans from?
They are also not showing the loans as defaulted but as 30 and 60 days late. They started this set of reports 2 months ago. Needless to say I am confused.
Great Lakes should not be reappearing on your credit reports after this long.
I would recommend you talk things over with an experienced FCRA attorney in your state. Where do you live? I can email you contacts if you like?
I have about 20 grand in medical debt (11 accounts in all) from 2010. I am unable to pay that. I also have 2 judgments from 2010 which no longer shows on my Equifax but does on my Transunion. My question is should i apply for a secured credit card? Would that have the old debtors ;looking where i work to garnish wages? My SOL has expired for these debts but can they still come after my wages, bank account etc.?
Check out this video about what your exposed to with judgment debt collection. In the vast majority of situations, it does not matter that a judgment is no longer showing on your credit reports. They can still be collected on in the way that you are concerned about.
And going out to try and establish credit is going to alert those judgment debt collectors that you are a better target. Check out this video about how debt collectors know finances have improved.
I had an injury that put me in the hospital and caused my credit cards to go to collections. I settled on almost all of the debts but two. One, a credit card from my current bank, sent me to collections but I haven’t heard from them or the collections agencies in over a year. I am about a year or two away from the statute of limitations to be sued for the debt balance but I am financially prepared to settle the debt and discharge it. However, I am not sure how to do this since I haven’t heard from the bank or any collection agency in over a year. My question is, what is the best course of action in this case? I am trying to eventually rehabilitate my credit score and while I know that settling for less than the amount owed isn’t an immediate fix, it is still better than nothing? Am I correct? Or what are your suggestions based on your expertise? I understand I still need to do my research and due diligence. Thank you!
Having a resolved collection account on your credit is far better than an unpaid one. Who is the bank? What is the balance owed today?
Its Chase Bank. It was 4-5 K when it went to collections and then I stopped hearing about it before I could resolve it.
Here are some resources to review about settling with Chase, and negotiating with a third party collection agency.
Husband has a debt last paid on 10/2010 car loan (reposessed). while checking our reports on credit karma they are reporting a new payment 09/2016! This reopens the statute of limitations and time line to fall of his report does it not? This no payment was made by us. I am fearful to contact them because I dont want to reactiate the debt ourselves. What can we do?
Who is it that is reporting the repo and updating it the other day? What state are you in?
No, a recent payment on this debt collection account would not allow it to show on his credit reports any longer.
We are in Fl. The original credit union is reporting the recent payment..which was never made by us or agreed upon. Transunion is reporting the payment under the credit unions details.
If they have never sued for the debt, and it has not been paid since 2010, than the time for them to sue has passed. I mention this to point out that disputing something on your credit reports can cause collectors to take notice and evaluate collection actions. There is not much for them to evaluate if they cannot sue, and you are not willing or able to pay.
I would send the dispute about recent payment activity because I am like that. But many of us would look at it like it is going to come off next year, and not bother with it unless we had some credit goal to accomplish.
Hi! I have a couple of unpaid medical collections that originally hit my credit 10/2013 and dropped my credit score significantly. I tried offering the collections agency payment for deletion but they declined. So I just worked on raising my credit score again. Now last month, I checked my credit and the same collection company “refreshed” the last update date for both accounts and again, my credit score dropped significantly. The collection company didn’t sell my debt to someone else, it’s still with them. Is this legal? Can I be penalized for the same debt twice? I haven’t had contact with them since 2013.
Are you saying they are reporting two separate collection entries, or are reporting the unpaid bills as brand new collection items?
No, it’s not showing up as a duplicate. I’m looking at the transunion report and the “placed for collections date” remains the same 10/3/2013, but the “Date Updated” is now reflecting as 10/18/16. I’m assuming the date updated refreshed the debt, causing my credit score to drop again ? It dropped by like 40 points. Those are the only two negative items on my report.
I’m sorry, yes the debt is owed to the same doctor for two services performed the same day. The collection agency is reporting it as two different collection entries. One for $175 and the other for $225. Both were originally placed for collections 10/3/2013 and both have a “date updated ” of 10/18/16.
That is pretty normal.
Paid or resolved medical collections no longer impair your credit like they used to. Why not just resolve them?
My son walked away from an apartment when he was 18, it was necessary at the time, that was in 2009. About three years ago he went to get a loan to buy a small home and found he has over $2500 in collections on a join debt. It says the opened date was May 19, 2010, he has never been contacted or knew he had this debt until then. We contacted an attorney who said he would be better off to let it drop off versus paying it because it would actually open it back up and be on his report another 7 years. We will be at 7 years this coming May, should be expect for it to drop off 6 months after that or could they sell it to another collection agency? We live in Kansas. Thanks.
You need a new attorney. Calling or paying a debt collector does not give it new credit reporting life. It still falls off after 7 years.
If the lender says he cannot get the loan through without resolving the old collection account, but your son really wants this house, you may want to settle it. If he can pass and wait a few more months for this to fall off, and then resume his home ownership goal, than it is hurry up and wait.
It will not matter if the collection account changes hands. It should not stay on his credit any longer if that occurs.
Thank you. The attorney doesn’t specialize in collections but did give us advice to just let it sit if we were able to. If we are only a year or less away from it dropping off I am going to let him just sit and let it drop off, if it was just his responsibility he would pay the balance but two other people are involved and won’t care or pay their share. Thanks!
Hello,
My boyfriend got divorced over the last year, and his ex-wife ran up a lot of debt when they were together. Unfortunately, both the credit card and repossessed car are in his name. The credit card is about $6,000 and the car is about $12,000. He is under the impression that those debts will completely disappear in 7.5 years and isn’t planning to pay them. Is that actually true? I know that is the point where they would disappear off of his credit reports, but would he still owe the money at that time? I don’t have any debt and have always been very responsible with money, so I don’t know anything about this subject. Any advice you have would be great.
Thanks,
Janet
What state are you in?
Those debts will drop from his credit reports after 7 and one half years. But there is another time line to be concerned about, and that is the state statute of limitations to sue in order to collect.
If your state SOL to sue is passed, and the items have fallen off his credit, there is really not much to do. The debt does not disappear. They can still write and call, but cannot hold up your life in anyway.
I have two negatives on my credit report. One is from a landlord. I gave them more than 30 days notice when I moved out and expected my deposit to be returned. They gave me every indication, in writing, that if I returned the rental in great condition, nothing would be deducted from my deposit, so I rented a carpet cleaner and I left that place in better condition than when I moved in. Instead of returning my deposit, they claimed I owed them another month’s rent. I was so angry that I did not call them because I was afraid I was going to lose it. Also, I was actively searching for a new job and chose to spend my time job hunting rather than fighting with them. Well, they sent it to collections, and now that I want to rent a place again, I am afraid it is going to hurt my chances. The amount I supposedly owe is $262. It is not fair for me to have to pay, but if I can improve my credit report by paying it, I just might do that. I also have another negative for $200 I did not pay to a hospital. I paid my deductible, and the insurance paid the rest, but then later I got a bill for another $200 from the hospital. It was, as it turns out, a very minor spider bite. I was afraid it was a poisonous spider. What should I do? Should I try to fight these amounts, or just pay them?
I am built to fight in these situations. And I mean dig in. But that is a process of many months sometimes. And the end result still may be a collection sticks.
Paid medical does not hurt your credit much anymore. But you will likely have a hard time with that unpaid debt related to a prior apartment, if you are trying to get approved for another. How soon are you looking to rent?
Wanted to show you an example of what this collection agency was apparently doing to my credit report. These accounts are private student loans that I co-signed with my daughter that at the time I signed would have been able to help her pay, but before I could make the first payment, I was laid off from a very good job leaving me without the ability to help her, therefore the collectors came after us. Here is how it is shown on the Transunion credit report. The way I read it is that this started in 2007 and if 7.5 years is the “golden” ticket, this should be gone, but it is not. They should not be adding more money to this should they? and if it is closed, and the 7 years has passed, can it be removed altogether from my report? There are 3 student loans and they all are closed and the other 2 original dates are Sept 22, 2008 and Jan 4, 2008, and there information read the same.
Account Details
Last Reported Oct 07, 2016
Creditor Name NAVIENT
Account Type Student
Account Status Closed – Derogatory
Opened Date Mar 26, 2007
Closed Date Jan 31, 2015
Limit —
Term 240 Months
Monthly Payment $574
Responsibility Joint
Balance $74,917
Highest Balance $31,950
Payment Status Collection/Charge-Off
Worst Payment Status Unknown
Date of Last Payment —
Amount Past Due $16,650
Times 30/60/90 Days Late 0/0/0
Remarks Charged off as bad debt
Profit and loss write-off
Payment History
Latest Status: Collection/Charge-Off
No payment history has been reported by this creditor.
NAVIENT
Balance Increased by $106
Between September 8, 2016 and October 7, 2016, your NAVIENT student loan account balance increased by $106 from $19,198 to $19,304.
Why This Matters
It looks like your student loan balance went up. This could be due to a missed payment, which can have a negative effect on your score. Your total debt also typically factors into your credit score, so it’s best to keep it low if you can.
Are these Collector Agencies allowed to do this? and how to I get all this negative information removed from my report?
When were the loan payments set to begin? If she was still in school the loan payments are not required. The solution is clearer if these are passed the 7 year reporting time.
If the contract allowed for collection costs to be assessed, this can change the balance owed, and thereby cause an update to the credit reports.
A bit of a follow up on how the process works. For the 7.5 year drop off of information, does it automatically drop off the reports due to the 7.5 years being up, does the creditor quit reporting it resulting in it not showing up any more, or does the creditor have to instruct the credit unions to quit reporting. The same question about a tax lien that has been paid. Does it automatically just drop off after the 7.5 years or does something have to cause it to go away?
The aged information can be set to drop off on the credit bureau side. And there are specific tools, like Metro 2, that provide a method for furnishers to stop reporting the information to the bureaus. None of that is a sure thing to work properly. You cannot rely on the credit reporting systems. Check your reports when you know things should have dropped off and verify that they have.
Is the tax lien state or federal? Tax liens can stay on for 7 years after you paid it. That said, there are some indications that state tax lies will no longer appear on credit reports by next summer, whether paid or not.
I had unpaid student loans. This year they garnished wages and are now paid off. For each account, there are 3 different reportings. One states Student loan assigned to government last reported 2012. One states Closed – Transfer/Sold, last reported 2014, and the third states Paid or being paid by garnishment
Collection account
Variable/adjustable Rate, last reported this month. Question is, when will they be removed from my reports?
Unpaid and paid collections age off of your credit reports in a similar time frame, which is 7 to 7 and one half years, unless you are in New York where paid collections age off in 5 years.
After reading information on line still confused as to what to do about a collection that is from 2010. It is reported by an apartment complex and I am waiting for it to fall off my report. As the year is coming to an end I have been reading much about this issue and found out the Federal Law is 7.5 years before it will fall off. Also, it was re-reported as of 9/2016. I was told that this does not matter and to leave it alone. I can not rent an apartment or live anywhere until this is removed. I live in Florida. Thank you.
If it is going to fall off soon, and it appears likely given the original collection date of 2010, than waiting it out is often the better path to take.
If it does not come off as scheduled, post an update and lets go from there.
Hi Michael. I have 2 derogatory medical collections on my credit report from 2011. I’m trying to get my credit score up because my interest rates are always high. Will this drop off sometime in 2017? Is there a way I could get this removed of my credit report sooner or should it run it’s course?
Thank you.
My mistake, it’s from 2010. Thank you!
Than yes, next year would be about right.
If the medical debt is from 2011 than they are likely to stay on your reports until 2018. You can also look to pay or settle them. Paid medical debts do not impact your credit reports like they used to.
We are currently working to do a reverse mortgage on our house. Our loan was approved but the loan processor sent us a letter, that before moving on, I need to explain what occurred to result in a derogatory credit showing on my Transunion report from Midland Funding. I searched my credit history report from all three credit reporting agencies and could not find it. I even called Transunion and they could not find it also. On calling back the loan processor, she sent me a copy from her report that shows a collection from FIA card services that was, I believe a credit card that was charged off from Bank of America 10 YEARS AGO, when we were having financial problems. It says Collection REV acct. sent to collection. They list 6/16 under payment history activity, and under Delinquency MOP Date 06-16. Currently my credit score is 780. What should I do to find out what’s going on and resolve this. Isn’t this way past the SOL for California.
Thank you for your time.
It is way over the SOL to sue in California, and long passed the time allowed to show on your credit reports. Why the lender is focused on it is not clear. You may want to ask them, or ask to talk to a supervisor. If they cannot offer a satisfactory reason, or any reason that makes sense, you may want to look for another lender.
Thank you for your response. The lending company is telling me that this derogatory collection from Midland is on my current credit report from TransUnion. I called TransUnion and they have no record of it. The lender even sent me a copy of the statement that shows it on there. But my current print out from TransUnion does not. Since were going for a Reverse Mortgage I don’t believe I have a say in who the lender is. My credit score jumped 100 points up in June. Could this have fallen off my credit report. I asked them to run it again but they want me to call Midland Funding to get an answer I don’t think I should contact Midland Funding because that could open up a can of worms.
I would pay for a full copy of my credit report myself, or get a free version of one of the three major bureaus from annualcreditreport.com. Look to see if Midland is on any of your credit reports… especially TransUnion. Let me know what you find. It sounds like Midland may have fallen off recently.
i got a copy of all three credit reports and no mention of Midland Funding. I think it must have fallen off the month after the loan company checked. I told them that and sent them my most current reports. Hopefully that should do it. thanks.
I have an acct from GE money that is delinquent since October 2010. It was sold to portfolio collections and portfolio just updated the date on my credit report to sept 16 2016. I have 3 questions. 1- should they both be showing on my credit report? 2- will it come off the report from original oct 2010 date for the 7.5 years limit? Or from the new date from portfolio? 3- how can portfolio add such a current date on my report?
Thank you for your assistance.
That current date from PRA is likely just the most recent update.
Yes, both Synchrony bank and Portfolio Recovery can show on your credit reports at the same time. But the Synchrony credit reporting should show a zero balance owed. Make sure of that.
Both will come off up to 7 and a half years from the 2010 date.
Portfolio Recovery cannot report in a manner so as to lengthen the time this stays on your credit reports. If that happens let me know.
Thank you very much. They both show a balance; I will have to look into that. So GE should show 0 and portfolio should have the balance and will come off report 7.5 years from October 2010?
Yes. You can file a dispute with the credit bureaus to get the Synchrony account updated to show a zero balance.
Portfolio is reporting longer than 7 years on one of my accounts! It first delenquent back in 2008 and its 2016! I am considering contacting the CFPB. I never paid a dime to Portfolio. What are your thoughts?
I would file a complaint against Portfolio Recovery Associates with the CFPB.
I have a question. I have a few negative accounts on my credit. They are all placed in collections and the status is open. The original delinquency dates are about 5 years ago. Would these fall off my report at the 7.5 mark?
They should, but be sure to monitor them at the time to make sure they do.
Had an unforeseen situation a few years back. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and sadly passed away last February. We were trying everything and anything to help her and most was out of pocket expenses trying alternative procedures. She also had radiation and chemotherapy at Dana Fabar in Boston. Needless to say our credit cards were maxed out and eventually I could not keep up with the payments. I worked with a company “The Davis Law Group” out of Staten Island, NY. They are a credit negotiating company. This was a big mistake on my part. I realized later I should have handled it all myself.
So I had 5 cards go into “Charge off” status and my credit score took a huge hit.
I just began settling with the third party groups and this is were I stand:
PNC Bank – settled for less than the original. settlement = $858.36 0n 9/14/2015
Chase – original $4701 – settlement = $2355 on 8/25/2016
Chase- original $4354 – settlement = $2180 on 8/25/2016
Barclays – original $6035 – settlement = $2535 on 8/22/2016
Capitol One – $2976 – Have negotiated settlement , but need to call this Monday to verify the settlement and send payment. 9/2/2016
Both Chase cards sent me “Settlement Agreement Confirmation” letters and I have check stubs for documentation
Barclays has not sent me a settlement letter but I have bank stub documentation and I am calling them Monday 9/12/2016
PNC was settled back in 2015 when I had no idea what I was doing. I am calling them also on Monday to send a settlement letter. I do have documentation of payment. It was a payment plan: 6 payments of $183.11
Capitol One – We agreed on a settlement and i was supposed to send a payment on 9/5/2016. They did not provide me with a settlement document so I am calling this Monday to verify our agreement.
My main question is, How long will it take to get the “Charge Off” taken off my credit report? Can they be taken off because I settled for less? Is there a letter I am supposed to send to the credit bureau to remove the charge off. Please, any info would be great. I am feeling horrible about this entire mess I got into.
The fact that your account went all those months without payment and then charged off is going to stay on your credit report for up to 7 and one half years from when you stopped making your payments. You cannot send a letter to get them taken off. All of the accounts you have settled should be showing a zero balance owed. Your remaining accounts are going to show that soon. All of these resolved collections will help you bounce back credit wise, and to the point you can get a home loan, car, or other loans.
There are new credit score models from FICO and Vantage that do not factor in paid collections. And more progress is being made in that direction too.
I have a question I got a call from a debt collector claiming I had a cell phone account in 2003 that they are trying to sue me over now. 13 years later? Should I be worried?
I would not be concerned about collection efforts on a debt this old. They cannot sue and it should have dropped from your credit reports long ago.
I’m still so confused! Please help! I have one collection account on my credit report from a medical bill with a date of service in 2011. My credit report shows 2013. For the debt (which was when this collection agency started with this bill). I was told to call (by a friend ) and offer to pay half if they would report paid as agreed and remove from my report. The collector was agreeable but he would not send me a letter, he wanted me to email him the offer and I just stopped there because of my confusion. To muddy it more…this debt may have been paid as I had 4 er visits and one hospital stay all in 2 weeks. I thought all accounts were done and paid but I have moved a few times and in general with health now I couldn’t begin to try to find receipts.
What is my best choice of action at this point? When will it come off my report? I’m in Illinois if that matters.
Thank you very much for your time.
Based on the dates you shared it would come off in 2018, or early 2019.
What type of credit or financing are you looking to accomplish between now and then?
I’m not planning any purchases. I’m just trying to get things cleaned up in case.
Thank you very much for your quick response, I wad worried I restarted a clock.
Thanks that was real info I can use and not go away scratching my head.
My question is that I have several accounts in collection from around three years ago. Most are reporting the actual closed dates of the original account except for Portfolio Recovery who is reporting an open date near the time as to when the original account closed, but show no closed date. Is this going to affect my credit for a longer period and/or what does this mean to my credit’s future,
Portfolio Recovery and Associates should not be showing on your credit report in any manner that would extend the time for it to appear. In other words, PRA should be showing as set to come off your credit at the same time as the original creditor.
PRA being on your credit is affecting you for sure. And it being an unresolved collection is often going to have a bigger impact than if it were a resolved collection.
Hello Michael I am on Disability for years because i have seizures
and i have a couple of loan companies and rent and doctors to see
and there is co- payments i have to pay . But i owed Merrick bank
1.835.48 and i have not paid them in two years and it’s charged off
and they turned it to Carson Smithfield LLC and they don’t call me
but sending letters it’s the second within two weeks and i called
them try to explain i can only send 25.00 a month now i am worried
if they are going to take me to court please give me some advice
Thank you !
Check out this video I did from a couple weeks ago about how your protected from debt collectors when on disability.
This is awesome, thank you. I have a question for you…
I am in the process of trying to clean up my debt. I HAD 3 accounts in collections, 2 of which I paid off in June 2016. The first paid off account was with Cooling & Winter – they removed the account from my credit report. I have another with PRA (GE Money), and it is still showing on my report as open with a $0.00. What can I do to have this removed from my report? At the very least, I would have expected that, if it were going to be reported at all, that it would be reported as closed. However, given C&W completely removed their account from my report, I have a little hope that I can do the same with PRA.
Separately, I am in FL and have an old Capital One debt that was last paid on in Dec, 2011. It is set to expire the SOL Jan, 2017. I noticed that the last date the balance was updated was Aug, 2016. I thought that was strange, because there has been no activity on it since January 2012. Is this typical?
Apologies, I need to update my post as now that I have looked a little deeper into my credit report, have further information.
I was incorrect in saying Cooling & Winter removed an item. C&W are attorneys working with / for PRA — the account that is still showing $0.00 and active on my credit report.
The account that was removed was FLG (Cach LLC).
The outstanding account (which I still need to settle…but can’t seem to get them to go anymore than 10%) is Midland, where the balance is 1375.00. In the meantime, I’m in a payment arrangement with them.
You cannot get Midland to settle for less when you are currently making other payments to them.
It is unlikely that PRA will remove that paid collection from your credit report. But you may not need them to. These days you can bounce back fairly quickly with paid collections.
It is typical for creditors to update your credit reports, even when the balances are in collection, and when nothing really changed.
I have a collection for a medical bill since 2011. And it was reported on my credit report from Equifax lately. All along i thought that it has been cleared with my insurance. And now it seems that it was bought with another collection agency. What can i do to resolve this issue? FYI the hospital that i had the original debt has been out of business. And i had it dispute with Equifax online and have it verified if it was mine. Though the result says that it was. So what are the things that i needed to do in order for it to be removed from my credit report?
Are you saying you should not owe the debt? Have you connected with your insurance company on this?
If you do owe, you can negotiate a lump sum pay off for less than the balance. It will update to your credit as paid. Paid medical debt does not hurt your credit much, or at all these days.
I have a company that says we have a mortgage with them. They have changed there name a couple of times. They reported to the credit that we have not payed them and documented this in 1998. We filed bankruptcy in 2001. We have not received any kind of bills but we are trying to refinance our home and now it shows on our credit. That has been 18 years ago. Please tell me what is happening and is there anything I can do about it.
You don’t see something like that very often. I can see it causing a problem with title, but not popping back up on your credit reports. Fill in the “talk to Michael” form in the right column of this page. I will email you to set up a time to talk on the phone and get more details. I want to learn more about what happened then, and what is going on now, in order to offer better feedback.
Hello I have a couple unpaid apartment debts that are set to be removed from my credit report in a year. After they are removed should I be able to qualify again for an apartment?
In most instances you should be able to.
My capital one credit report shows i have 12 derogatory a few weeks ago it said 15 does this mean some of my collection accounts have fallen off (removed)?
all 12 are hospital charges, i suffer from severe asthma and had to be hospitalized a lot between 2007-2012
and my 2nd question is on that list it shows child support but with $0.00 balance. I don’t owe any child support (seeing as i have custody of my children) why is it on the list and is that affecting my credit?
You can check your credit reports through http://www.annualcreditreport.com for free (one form each bureau in a 12 month period). That will tell you if some old collections are dropping from your credit. From the dates you mention that would be good bet.
Have you ever owed child support?
Very good article and gave me some clarity on a number of things. However, I am curious about the following: I currently have a bill in collection and according to my TransUnion credit report, this item is scheduled to fall off my report in April 2019 (along with the original creditor’s negative item).. I have been making payments on this collection for the last year and will continue to do so until it is paid off. With that being said, if I still owe a balance on this collection in April 2019, will it still fall off my report when it is scheduled to do so (as my present report states)? I still have every intention of paying it after it does fall off, as I know that I could be sued in a court of law for the remaining balance (the statute of limitations would still be in effect).
Thank you
It will still fall off even though you continue to make payments.
It appears your account went into collection far enough so that it could not be reaged, which is common.
Thank you for the quick response. We were able to set up a settlement and are waiting for the “paperwork” to be sent to us regarding the terms, so as to have something concrete and in writing and to also avoid any potential legal measures.. It’s good to know that this will still fall off in 2019. Thank you again for your assistance.
I checked up on my credit via CreditKarma.com earlier today and the collection I noted above has been removed from my TransUnion report. I have two questions: 1) can this collection be re-inserted on my report? 2) I have a solid, written-out contract with the collector for this debt.. Do I keep making payments on this? Suppose they sold the debt to a new collector? Part of me wants to contact the collector, but also I feel like I’d be poking a sleeping giant. Again, this debt I believe is scheduled to come off sometime in 2019, as that is the date of last delinquency on the original creditor’s account.
Thank you
If an account was removed, but can legitimately be reported, I do see them pop back on. Just be sure to check from time to time, and that anything showing on your credit reports is accurate, complete and current (not just the collection account should it reappear).
If you made arrangements you can keep with them to avoid litigation. Like you said, you may have reset the SOL with your payments.
You should not have to worry about the account being resold if you have an agreement. Let me know if something like that happens and I can help you from there. No matter what you have going on, be sure you get it documented and have the ability to show any and all payments.
I definitely want to pay back my debt. I was just in a tough financial situation going back, and only within the last 2 years have been able to start getting things under control. Like I said, I have a written up contract (payments per month for X amount of months) from this collector and have made multiple copies to keep in a safe place. Should I continue making payments with them since we do have an agreement in place? Also, when I contact them to schedule my next payment, should I inquire about the removed collection and ask what’s going on? I definitely agree that if there is a contract set-up, it would seem odd for them to sell the account off, I just don’t want to send them a payment and the account has been sold off, thus essentially negating the payment.
Who is the debt collection agency you are dealing with?
American Coradius International, LLC.
If it were me, and I had the arrangement and ability to follow through, I would continue with the payments. I would not bring up anything about the removal from my credit reports. It is a good thing it fell off early, and I would not alert anyone to it without a purpose.
Now that tax season is upon us, I recently checked the lender’s website to see if they are issuing me a form 1099-C for cancellation of the debt on a collection I paid off in August, 2016. It states on their website that I don’t have any amount ($0.00) filed under “cancellation of debt.”
If I am right to assume they haven’t made a claim to the IRS, since the numbers have just become available, do I have to file the 1099-C for this tax season?
Essentially, they aren’t making claim, so why should I have to?
They could send it next year. There could be an error with what you see online. They may never send one.
It is often just best to get the accounting part over with. But run your situation by a tax professional and see what they say.
I received a call from an agency called Priority One. It was a recorded message saying I owed 1690 etc and that I needed to call that minute and then I recorded message said…my name and ‘you have been served’…so I called this guy back and in a fog I agreed to payments….I asked what the amount was from, he said payday loans but no other info …I have had a year of cancer treatments and did have a few loans which I paid off. He called me right before first amount was due to make sure I had the funds. By that time I had looked them uo on net and they have a horrible reohtatiin. I have since closed my checking account and have paid him 500….my bank has filed a fraud ckaim. What di I do if he comes back to me. The phone numbers he gave me never work.
Check out my these to articles about scam debt collectors and filing complaints with the CFPB.
I leased to own a truck. Sept of last year was the last time they reported to my credit. I called the sales department about this. They told me they have been reporting every month. I filed a dispute with trans union and in 3 days the loan disappeared from my credit as if it never existed. Is that normal. I’m upside down in the loan so could I tell them to pick up the truck and it not affect my credit?
You will typically see a repossession show on your credit reports if you voluntary surrender a vehicle. After auction you will most likely owe a deficiency balance.
I read your comment to say that the truck loan was showing as a positive on your credit reports and that you disputed it and TransUnion deleted. It is not normal to dispute a positive item, and while TransUnion may have removed it, that could just be temporary.
Hi! Old Verizon Bill sold to pinnacle (original in 2010 or 2011) still on my credit with pinnacle offering me settlement letters date on credit report say Oct 2014… this is only debt on my credit report..when will it fall off? Sol I believe is out for PA letter says they can’t Sue me….just want this to go away!!
Did you stop paying it back in 201o/2011, or is 2014 when you stopped?
I recently had a negative item removed from my credit report on dates between July 20 and July 27 of 2016 the collection agency was challenged a dispute bye Lexington Law
the same week month year the negative item was again replaced on my credit report as a negative item in collection. it was the same collection agency although it’s showing on report same name with llc to fallow one and systems to fallow the other. is this legal to be removed for inaccurate reporting bye one name to only be re submitted for collection same company
Credit repair companies often have some success with removals only to have the items pop back on. It tends to mean the furnisher (bank or debt collector) pulled your file together to report correctly.
Is this a situation where the debt is not legitimately yours, or some other error?
This may seem like a wild story, but here it goes!
Back in 2010 I had sold my car to someone in Iowa as I was moving to South Dakota. In a matter of weeks after selling my car the new owner lost the car to a towing company due to the car sat in the same spot for too long. The new owner never put the title in his name and the towing company ended up sending the bill to me through a collection company, Noll Collection Service. I went a copy of my bill of sale to this collection company and they told me that the bill of sale was not enough to prove that I sold the car to someone else. So this collection has been on my report since Feb 3rd 2011. They have since stopped calling me and sending me letters but it appears they are still updating it through my credit report monthly. Will this automatically fall off my report at the 7.5 year mark of the initiation date on my credit report? Or will it continually stay on my report since they continue to update it monthly?
Generally, negative accounts drop off your credit 7 and one half years after you stop paying, or in this case, the debt began on the first day it was towed.
But this does not appear to be your debt. I would file a complaint against the debt collection company with the CFPB. Read that article and follow through to the links to file the complaint and get this resolved that way.
You might even file a credit reporting complaint too if you have already tried to dispute the debt as not yours with the credit bureaus.
Let me know what happens.
I’ve got a question for you! I recently received a letter from a new collection agency offering me a 60% pay off. I do not have the funds for this seeing as I just had a baby and am not working right now so I went to look and see when they are supposed to drop off. I am in Washington state and I read that they only have 6 years to sue me for the debt. On my report it shows the the date of 1st delinquency was 07/2010. I’m not too concerned about my credit score seeing as I know there’s a long recovery for that. I’m mainly worried about them trying to sue me or have a judgement put out on me. Seeing as it will be 6 years in a few days does that mean that unless they have a judgement against me within the next couple days that I will not be sued for that debt?
The SOL to sue typically goes by date they file. If you see not case in the court record now, it is highly unlikely the collection agency would wait until the last 3 days to file. Are you certain you never made a payment after that?
This specific collection on your credit report may only have 18 months left before it drops off. Are there other collections on your credit too?
I have a question. A debt I owe is dated back to 2010 but on my credit report it says Nov 2014. How is that aloud? Can I dispute it or should I just pay it off?
Are you saying you last made regular payments in 2010? The account is showing as opened in 2010?
What type of account is it?
How much is it for?
What credit goal do you have that is motivating the look at improving your credit?
I have an old account that dropped off my credit report because it was older than 7 1/2 years old. It recently showed back up and I have not done anything with the company or the collection agencies. It just showed up may/2016 saying last activity 2013 (not true). I am trying to get a loan for my last year in nursing school and can’t because of this on my credit. I may have to drop out of school. Is this something I can dispute as it is way older than 7 1/2 years? I think my loan got sold to a new company does that mean its activity is current again? I live in Oregon and it is past the point they can sue. I use to get letters saying we can’t sue you but still want our money. Does this “newer activity” on my credit make it so they can sue me? Thank you for your help, I’m so confused with all of this.
Items appearing on your credit reports – that are too old to – can and should be disputed off. What you described is unfortunately all too common when accounts are resold. Who is it that is now reporting the debt?
Here is what I recommend:
File disputes with the credit reporting agencies on line or in writing. You are disputing the account as an error in that it is too old to show on your credit reports. The credit bureaus have up to 30 days to investigate your dispute. If they come back saying the account is verified, and you know for a fact that it is more than 7.5 years old move on to this next step.
File a credit reporting complaint with the CFPB. The CFPB has regulatory purview over the credit bureaus and many debt collectors. Your complaint will often be seen by employees at the credit bureaus and debt collectors that have an increased amount of training and ability to make corrections. I am seeing a couple of week turn around on responses to CFPB complaints.
Because your situation could prevent your loan for school going through, and if it were me in your shoes, I would skip the first option and go right to the CFPB complaint portal. I would spell everything out in chronology (about when you stopped paying the original creditor, they are no longer on your credit reports, this new debt owner is etc).
Something appearing on your credit reports will have no impact on your state SOL and how long they have to legitimately sue you in court to collect. If they think, or were given information at purchase, that you last paid in 2013, you will be changing their view with your disputes or complaints.
If you want to escalate this at anytime let me know. There are a couple of really great consumer advocate attorneys in Portland with all the FCRA and FDCPA experience you would want.
Wow. I just went through years of information that you have provided to others and it was the most helpful information I’ve seen since beginning my research! Thank you!
My husband and I want to buy a home this year and I’ve been working on improving his credit. He has 2 collection accounts on his credit reports with only 1 original creditor showing that are scheduled to fall off in 2017 but ideally we’d be shopping for a home and home loan before the end of this year. We are in California and I know he cannot be sued for this debt anymore.
Midland Funding (Original creditor Best Buy) Amount Due: $1,166
Portfolio Recovery (Original creditor not listed on report is Capital One Bank) Amount Due: $1,960
My questions are:
1. Best buy shows:
Date closed: 1/20/2006 “Maximum Delinquency of 120 days in 01/2010 and in 12/2009”
Last payment made: 12/22/2010.
Scheduled to be removed: 04/2017
You mention in your article that “the 7.5 years the negative item stays on your credit report starts from the first missed payment to your lender.” Does this mean that this date should be 01/2010 or is the 12/2010 date correct?
2. Midland funding shows an estimated removal date of 05/2017. Shouldn’t it be 04/2017 since the original creditor is Best Buy and that’s what’s listed. Would you recommend disputing this?
3. Since Capital One does not report to the bureaus, how could we verify the first missed payment date for the Portfolio Recovery collection? This one shows that it is scheduled to be removed by 10/2017 but if you have tips for finding this information, please let me know.
3. If we negotiate a settlement/pay the debt with the collection agencies to obtain the mortgage as required by some lender as you’ve mentioned previously, the accounts should still fall off in 2017, correct? That is, they can’t restart the clock on reporting?
Thank you so much for your help!
Sorry Michael. Quick clarification:
For no. 1:
Date closed: 01/20/2009
“Maximum Delinquency of 120 days in 01/2010 and in 12/2010”
When we stop paying on a credit card like Home Depot, most of us do a hard stop. I mean we stop paying and do not make additional payments. That makes the date to calculate when something will drop off our credit reports easier.
There are many who will miss a payment or three, and then make one or two, and then stop again. But that does not impact credit reporting longevity unless we bring the account completely current. That would mean all missed payments, penalties and fees, all get paid up to date. Credit reporting for credit cards gets a bit wonky when this happens.
Can you determine when all payments stopped, and whether any accounts were brought completely current if payments were intermittent?
I would only recommend disputing the one month difference that Midland Funding is showing if you are colse to that date and needed it off 30 days early for some reason, otherwise it serves no purpose to dispute a 30 day window.
With the Capital One and PRA situation, can you look up old bank records to show when payments were last sent in? If you do not have physical statements you can often get your bank to go into archives for a few dollars and get old statements (if they still have them).
If you settle the collections they will still fall off on schedule. There is no extra life that gets breathed into them from the settlement or pay off.
Thank you. The hard stop makes sense. I believe he made an effort to pay when he could during that period (construction job) but I don’t believe he ever brought the accounts current. I just found it strange that Best Buy closed the account in January 2009 but they still recorded a payment in December 2010. I was hoping we could argue that the account was closed in 2009 because he was already in default and the clock could start there. Either way, it seems like we may need to simply pay it if the mortgage company says we should when we apply for the loan.
Thanks again for your help!
It is better to settle an old debt before you apply for any new loans. Check out this video I did with a former debt collector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdDks73QUw
With these serious short comings by the these agencies it has cost me not only the ability to get a car loan at a going rate of interest; it has also cost me housing in which I don’t have to put at times double to triple the amount of a deposit; n0t to mention a credit score the has prevented me from advancing at an social economic level that would have afforded advantages that I may never reach.
I now know why I have never received any correspondence regarding these cards from the issuing company nor the collection agencies for they were more than likely using the addresses and phone numbers that corresponded with the application not to mention the checks that kept the accounts current until just recently.
Should I be filing a complaint with the FTC or Consumer Affairs? Is there the possibility of restitution?
The FTC has a helpful site up about dealing with ID theft at https://identitytheft.gov/
Check through the site fully and follow the recommendations made.
You can notify all of the collectors you listed directly and submit the ID theft concerns to them, follow the steps they request, and get things removed that way too.
You may have a mixed file issue along with, or instead of, an ID theft concern.
I pays to keep records of past credit cards and such. Turns out the HSBC and Capitol one issued cards to someone whom has stolen my identity. Thus the originator of the issuing the cards; the collection agencies now holding the outstanding debt and the credit reporting agencies have a lot of errors. The place of residence for the time period shows me living in three different places ranging from Northern Calif to Southern. It also lists phone numbers and addresses I have never had as well as a current employer that I have never heard of.
The biggest bit of proof I have for this is that from 12/2002 thru 09/2006 I was severally injured in an accident not working; incarcerated at a time it says I not only applied for and received the cards but also made payments on them.
Frankly I don’t know of any credit card you can apply for get a line of credit when you have no job and your residence is county.
So how do I go about things from here. This would involve HSBC; Capitol One; Midland Funding LLC; Cavalry Portfolio Svcs and all three credit reporting agencies
Credit card last paid before the year 2000 haven’t received any correspondence from collection agency in over 8 years. Yet the credit report states there was payment made in 2007 along with an 81 month payment history stating that the last reported date of 05/2016. At the same time this charge off shows under the original credit card HSBC as well as Midland Funding, Calvery Portfolio. In fact the charge off amount reported by HSBC is considerably less the the amount stated by each of the collection agencies.
At the time I was being sued by numerous plaintiffs stemming from auto accident that took my wife as well as 2/3rds of the household income. Raising 2 kids from ages 1 and 3 all of which cost me everything house, credit cards, stocks, car as well as nearly 180k in attorney fees. Which is why i let such a great deal of time pass without any credit cards such that time would take care of most of the debts. Now I just need to repair the credit report. Most of whats left has not been used for nearly 15 years so how do I do away with the remainder
Did any of the accounts at issue end up in court with a judgment against you?
Have you filed disputes in the past with the credit bureaus about any of this?
So far I am fairly positive that there has been no judgements on the remaining accouts. as it shows the current status as being open. Besides the amount of these accounts are between $800 and $1600 though according to the records from the originator they all less than 750.
I have not filed any disputes at this time as I want to make sure I follow that fine line between getting the negative remarks removed rather than poking the hibernating bear.
If the date you last paid on any of these accounts has been more than 7 and one half years I would look to dispute them with the agencies themselves and the credit bureaus. If they come back as verified, yet you can show that the 7 years has passed, let me know.
On my Experian report and Trans union report i have 2 hospital bills in collection on bought bureaus and i notice that the bought bureaus are stating different open dates and also these 2 hospital bills is a bill that i have made in 2013 but it was placed on my Experian report 12/15 and on my Trans union report it was placed on my report 01/16 Can they do that?
But the way i live in Texas
Yes, it is pretty common to have things appear on your credit reports at different times. Much of that will be due to the furnishers of the information, and not necessarily the credit bureaus.
Hi, I have a question- I have an old debt that is way old, over 10 yrs, but I had moved a few times and i never got any mail regarding this, but now I am having wages garnished….I KNOW I have other things that are in the past, but dont know how to address them now- I thought that once it was off your credit report, the charges disappear. I am in NJ- A lot of this debt would be 10 years ago, some of it maybe 6 1/2-7yrs? My credit is okay now, but I’m concerned another sneaky charge is lurking!
Wages being garnished mean that you were sued and a judgment entered in the court. Find out what court the judgment was issued in and post an update with when it was filed, what address they say you were served at and whether you lived there at the time, how much the judgment is for.
Search your name in that court for more than just the one judgment.
Post an update and let’s go from there.
I have a few Old CCards that I have Paid in Just about 7yrs this Summer is a BIG year for my credit report as I live in Mass and a lot of things are going to fall off my report some are starting too.
Here are some of my questions.
. If the CC that are about to fall off have sold to a collection company that has been after me and has already taken me to court but has been unsuccessful due to my income. Will the collection Company 1 stop and 2 fall off my report as well?
2. If not should I settle them out to get the collection companies off my report?
3. If some collection companies have fallen off my report and the CC as well and someone calls for payment is it really ness to pay them? at this point?
I guess my question is once this 7yrs mark hits what is actually going to happen with accounts in collections and not and my Credit Report. I am trying to fix it and this is my year to do it.
The collection company with a judgment is not likely to stop trying to collect. The original credit reporting will generally age off your credit reports 7 and one half years from when you stopped making payments. There is likely an additional derogatory on your credit from the judgment (public record section). The judgment will not fall off until 7 years from when it was entered in the court. Once a judgment falls off your credit it does not mean the collectors stop trying to get paid.
You will not be able to settle and get the judgment off your credit. But getting the judgment updated to show paid/satisfied is what you want in order to improve your situation.
It is not necessary to pay a debt collector if the debt is too old to stay on your credit, but that is not the case if the debt collector is calling about a judgment.
If a debt was established in 2009, can a debt collector wait until 2016 to put it on your credit report? This debt was created in AZ and just showed up on my credit report last month (3/2016).
Can you be more specific? What do you mean by established? What type of debt is it? Were there ever payments made toward the debt, and if so when did payments stop?
I don’t know anything about the debt. It just appeared on my credit report from last month with a date of 2009. When I called the creditor on the report I was told they use to be Quest, but is now Century Link. I adkef for proof that the debt was mine.She said she had no info, as thedebt had been sold to a collections agency and I need to call them. (CMI)
I would call CMI and learn what I could. Let me know what you find out.You may need to dispute this with the credit bureaus, and take other steps.
Did you ever have an account with Qwest?
Yes, I did but it’s been so long ago; which is why I questioned the debt and what type of service. I called CMI, who couldn’t provide me with any specifics other than it was a debt that I owed for service. I was told I had to send a letter saying I never had the service in order for the debt to be researched.
And….I just received a call from another collector for cable services regarding a debt where my last pymt was 11/10/2011. What do you say about that?
It would appear the Qwest account is something you could try to dispute off with the bureaus, or that is going to come off this year as it is.
The cable bill has legs if it is showing on your credit report correctly as have last been paid in 2011 (could be on until sometime in 2018 or early 2019).
How does one handle when a creditor continues to extend the date when the item should fall off the credit report? My case is very cumbersome, but they winded up filing suit and I actually won, but my main concern is that these particulars have destroyed my credit for years. Although I have disputed the debt in the past and now won a law suit basically stating the debt is not valid, it still shows in my report and the date on my credit report keeps getting extended on when it will fall off the report. Not to mention it is duplicated multiple times. For years I have just tried to wait it out thinking it would fall off on so and so date, only to find out it has been extended again (second time) I feel trapped!
Post more particulars.
Who is the lender and/or debt collector involved?
When did you stop paying the creditor?
Did the judge in your case say the debt is not valid, or was the case dismissed for deficiencies?
Of the multiple credit report entries, who is showing a balance currently owing?
What credit or finance goals is this holding you back from accomplishing?
as a very naïve 18 year old fresh into college I obtained a visa and discovery credit card in 2000. 16 yrs later, the discovery debt still appears on my credit report under the collection agency Portfolio Recovery LLC. The credit card was for $500 and the debt now is over 3 times that amount. Is this legal? how can I get rid of it and from showing on my credit report? I am from California
When did you stop paying Discover?
Credit Report Question: If items on your credit report have been removed from one credit agency but are still showing up on another credit agency are you liable to pay those debts? I have 3 debts that have been removed from equifax, but they show up under transunion. Some have not been 7 years yet, What do I do?
Thank you,
The debts do not go away legally once they are dropped from your credit reports. These debts exist and can be collected on… forever really. That is how I respond for the “liability” part of your question.
How much pressure is there to pay a debt the older it gets? Not much.
What state do you live in? What are the collections account the result of (credit card, medical bill, etc)? Your state has a statute of limitations for how long you can legitimately be sued for different types of debt. Once that time passes, the debt collectors can bark, but not bite (sue you). If they do, your defense is simple and often swift.
After your state SOL to sue, there is the limits for how long accurate negatives stay on your credit reports. Once that time passes, you can still be contacted for the debts by collectors. You can ignore those contacts, and even tell them you do not want to be contacted any longer.
If your accounts are not yet 7 and one half years from when you stopped your payments, you typically are looking to wait out the time until they do drop off. If Equifax systems decided to drop the negatives earlier than the other 2, and if the other 2 are legitimately supposed to be there a little longer, you may just need to wait things out.
Dear Michael,
I have two collections on my credit report from 2010. One from a Cable Provider($550) and one from a cell phone bill($1200) that have never been payed off. I’m currently looking to rent an apartment in NY. However, I’m concern that the unpaid collections affect my chances of getting approved. Should I go ahead and pay or wait until they come off? What are the probabilities that I can request a pay for delete?
When I checked in 2013 the Transunion report said it will come off my report around March 2018, which at this moment seem like a long time. Recently I checked my report on credit karma and it shows that the collection was opened in 2013, where in fact they both were in 2010, now making it stay longer on my report. I’m guessing they should drop off from the date I stopped paying not the collection company date, right? What would be the best thing for me to do at the moment? Should I pay, dispute the date, or wait till it comes off?
The two collection agencies are Pinnacle Credit Services( cell phone) who made mailed me a settlement letter last year and Convergent Outsourcing(Cable Provider). As of now, I haven’t contact them. Thank you for your time and guidance!
Utility companies are one of the few debts I suggest trying pay for delete with. But Cable providers and cell phone services may not play ball. Neither Pinnacle Credit Services, nor Convergent Outsourcing, are good targets to get to delete collections in return for payment.
I do recommend resolving those collections so that they get updated to show you took care of them on your credit reports.
They will fall off your reports based on the dates you stopped paying them, and not the newer dates the collection agencies use. If they don’t, you can dispute them off. Keep a copy of the credit reports you have today. They could come in handy for the disputes you may later file.
You may want to check out my article about renting an apartment with bad credit.
Hi, so I was wondering about a couple things on my credit report. I have two accounts in collections one is a U.S Cellular bill that I had gotten in my name for an ex who passed away in 2013 with a balance of $264 and another is a medical bill that I know I’ve paid for but since I paid cash I cant find my receipts or anything to help prove I did pay. My big reason is how do I get these collections off my report or how long will it take to fall off. I’m 25 and can’t even get a simple credit card. All I hear is collection items and not enough years of accounts open. Don’t understand how I can open anything when I’m always being denied. Can you help me figure something out, THANK YOU!!!
I would look to resolve the cell phone bill and get it updated to show as such on your credit reports.
I would dispute the medical bill as paid with the credit bureaus and see what comes of it. Do you recall when you walked into the office and paid cash, and who it was that helped you? Makes some notes of all that in case you need to do something more.
You might want to try getting a secured credit card to start.
I have an AT& T bill that has been over 16 years since it was disputed. and not paid. It is still showing up and being sent to collection agency after collection agency. How do I get that to stop? I live in Florida.
Also, I had a credit card with BOA. that I stopped paying back in 2010 or 2011. They then filed a 1099-C. I countered with form 982 and was declared insolvent. How can they still be claiming the account as being open and delinquent on my credit report? I filed a dispute with TransUnion and they investigated only to report that BOA says its within the FCRA act. Again, what can I do to get this taken care of. .
A debt does not extinguish once the SOL to sue and show on your credit reports expires. It can still be collected. If you want to stop hearing from debt collectors on those really old accounts you will want to send a cease communication letter, and will have to repeat that to each new debt collector. Use certified mail to send letters and keep a copy for your records.
The credit card with BofA that did not get paid will typically stay on your credit report for 7 and one half years from when you stopped paying. That is normal. You really cannot get it off earlier.
i also have some similar inquiries. I had a bank account i believe when i was 17 or 18 years old. I had over drafted the account and never paid anything as a irresponsible young adult.. Now at the age of 26 and trying to get my credit together i have had this debt in collections. I live in Washington state. If it has been over the 7 and a half years what would be my best options? The debt collector has sent me notifications to either pay the balance in full or pay a amount at 40% off for the amount to be paid for less than the balance. What would be the best option for me to pursue at this point?
Any info helps, Thanks!
Are you having any trouble opening bank accounts?
Is the collection still appearing on your credit reports?
What is the name of the collection agency trying to make a deal with you?
Hi Michael. I live in Florida and I have a Chase credit card account that was closed in 1/24/2010 with the last reported date of 5/11/2009. The account is a charge off (now shows a $0 balance) and was sold to a collection company that’s showing an open date of 5/27/10 with the last reporting date of 1/22/2016 with a balance of $1449. These should be the same account, so they should BOTH drop off in 7 years from the original account date of last payment and not the collection company’s date, correct?
Correct, only it is normal for your Chase account (and the debt collector) to fall off your credit after 7 and 1 half years, and not just 7, from the date your payments stopped.
Hi Michael,
I have recently applied for a mortgage and although I got approved, I have a collection that appeared when my credit was checked. It appears to be a charge for a library book that I incurred just about 7 years ago (March 2009) and the collection agency is Unique Collections. My loan officer said she recommended I take care of the balance through the collection agency, but I was under the impression that after 7 years it will no longer be on my credit report. She said this wasn’t true. I also had heard that if I pay it now or try to resolve it through the company, it can re-start the 7 year timeline that it appears on my credit history, I’m not sure what to do as if I decide to purchase a house, I don’t want my final approval to be denied because I did/did not take care of this fine. Thank you for your help!
How much is the collection account now? What was the original fine amount?
Hi Mike
Is it possible to have your mail id or number so that I can give more details. Need your guidance. Thanks much.
My email address is the same one you get comment notifications from. You can also submit a “talk to Michael” request in the right side bar on any page of this site.
Hi Mike
I had a good credit history from 1999 to 2009 in CA. In 2009 I was laid off and since I was on h1b I had to leave the country. Before I left, I had debt on my credit card which I couldn’t pay. It’s going to be 7 years by this March from the last payment. Now the company for which I am working is ready to offer employment in USA but I do have the following questions. Please help taking right decision.
Will the debt create any problem in leasing apartment or car etc.,
Do we need to get scared of collection agents?
Will there be any summons or notices from any one as SOL of 4 years is already passed?
How can I check my credit report as I am living outside US?
Is it OK to start living all over again?
An old unpaid debt can cause issues with renting an apartment. Do you have a set date that you are planning to move back?
It can depend on who the debt collector is, but generally no, you would not have to be overly concerned with debt collectors being aggressive with a debt this old. They will have figured the debt is passed the SOL.
You can check your credit report for free once every 12 months at http://www.annualcreditreport.com (I recommend checking one of the three credit reports every 4 months as a way to monitor your credit 3 times a year).
If you know the name of the current debt collector, or debt owner, post an update and I may have more feedback.
We are planning to move around first week of April. Will my credit report be clean right after seven years. If this is the case still renting be a problem? Please advice.
Also please let us know what other problems we can foresee with the move.
Negatives stuff like you have on your credit can often stay on for 7 and a half years. You could have difficulty because of this. Read the article I linked to in my prior comment about renting a home or apartment with bad credit.
When it comes to collections, I had one debt (same creditor and amount) which had been handed off twice to its final resting place with ERC, with whom I settled. TU still showed the debt as unpaid and the same original creditor/debt/amount as open/unpaid with the previous collection agencies. I filed a dispute with TU to clear the redundant information and update the balance to zero, and they indicated they would investigate and let me know within 30 days. I even received an email link to log in and check the status of the resolution (1 of 3 items resolved) is the type of information you get, no specifics until everything else is taken care of. The other collection agencies for with whom I settled have removed their entries from Experian and Equifax, so they are gone, despite not being scheduled to age off until 2018-2019. I was not told when settling they would be deleting the entries, and I am certainly not complaining!
Nice on the deletions!
I am not sure what happened with TransUnion. Are you still waiting for the investigation to complete?
Yes, they still have some time, a few more weeks, but given that I am got a “settlement confirmed and your account is paid in full” letter from ERC today this should rapidly be cleared up. ERC just gave me the documentation I need in the event TU has an issue, which I don’t think will happen.
Things appear to be moving along nicely!
Thanks for posting Jason. The details of your situation, and the updates you share, will all help later readers, and even current subscribers to this page.
Just a quick update. I filed a dispute with the credit agencies soon after and all the collection records were pulled from my records on all three of the credit bureaus. Several of the creditors chose to delete the record themselves, others did not validate and were deleted. My credit report is now collection free!. This combined with the secured credit card has brought my score up from the 521-581 range a month ago (early Feb) to a range in the high 680s to near 700 depending upon which agency you pull a score from. -March 12, 2016
Hello Michael,
I noticed recently on my credit report that an account that I had in collections on my Equifax report shows, “This agency did not report an open account to this bureau.”but on my Transunion report it shows that this same collections agency last reported to them on Feb. 5, 2016 that I still owe an outstanding balance. Can you possible clear this up for me as to why they are showing it still in collections and Equifax is not? This account was last paid in 2008. Not sure exactly what month.
P.S. I live in Florida.
It sounds like the collection fell off your Equifax report from age. TransUnion may have a different month set for it to fall off. Try to determine from the report when 7 and one half years is from when you stopped paying on the account. That is when most collections should fall off all of your credit reports.
If Equifax got it right, but TransUnion shows the collector longer than it should, you can dispute the account with TU.
Mike,
Your awesome and very knowledgeable. I appreciate the response. I really hope this collection’s account comes off Transunion so my credit score jumps up further. I’m trying to buy a house after my terrible divorce and my credit now is sitting at 750 on Transunion and 763 on Equifax. I”m getting there. Thanks again for the response.
P.S., per all three of my credit agency reports, there are no other accounts/negative items/collections or unpaid debts showing.
The only odd thing was that one of the debts I settled ($199) was from the same originating creditor and amount but was listed as open with three differing collection agencies. I settled with the agency which actually “owned” the collection account. This multiple entry only showed up on the Transunion report, but not on Equifax or Experian.
Make sure the original creditor and the debt collection agency/debt buyer all are showing a zero balance due. The original lender should show zero already if they sold the debt. Check to see the debt buyer updated your credit reports 60days or so after you paid the settlement agreement.
Sorry for the duplicate! I may have been typing as you were..
I Don’t have any medical debt–but was curious as to how it is classified.
I should add that I am on the road to recovery and do have student loan debt, not a great amount by any means compared to some, less than $15K. I have enrolled in the income based repayment plan offered by the USDE serviced by VSAC and as I was able to certify my lack of income, my required monthly payment is $0 so that account is being reported as paid as agreed and is not in forbearance or deferrment status and is not accruing penalties or extra interest.
My entire credit report consists of the Federal Student Loan (VSAC) in good standing, three small debts which now show as paid as settled ($199 TWC), ($272 DISH) and ($329 BANFIELD PET) with the exception of the one Transunion report showing the ($199 TWC) debt open in the two former collection agencies. This was a Time Warner Cable bill which eventually landed with ERC.. I called TWC and asked which agency had responsibility and they indicated ERC, so I contacted them and settled the debt. It has been reported to TWC and I’ll wait the 60 days and recheck.
My credit score is poor (521-581) depending upon which agency scores it. The only heavy hitter not awake yet is the AZ Utility Bill which is not and never has been reported.
My thought is to scrape together enough cash for a $200 secured credit card and charge a small amount (doctor co-pay, meds, etc) and make monthly payments plus over time to start building positive credit. It’s not just enough to remove the negative. If the AZ Utility bill awakens, I’ll hopefully be able to work with them. Thanks for any insight!
I would take a shot at one of the credit rebuild type of cards that Capital One offers rather than a secured card. I am often miffed at Cap One for collections practices, but they beat out most all other mid to large size credit card issuers when it comes to offering unsecured starter and rebuilding credit cards.
This comment has been removed and re-purposed in a more complete post from Jason about why he was turned down for a Capital One unsecured card, and why he researched and chose to apply for the First Progress secured card to start rebuilding his credit score.
Thanks for the detailed post about First Progress. It will help others who are rebuilding too. I am tempted to break out this comment into a new post. If you are up for it, send me an email with the above comment details, and add in more about your research and your over all situation (so people know more about why you are rebuilding your credit), and I will post it as a new article.
I would be glad to! Just shoot me an email to the address only you can see and I’ll send you some more detailed/personal information to that email address and I’ll compose something this weekend. I don’t want to post my email here where it can be seen publicly!
Thanks Jason! My email address is the same one you get comment notifications from.
I can see your big post. It did not go live because the site settings hold back comments with a link for manual approval. I am going to work on a post with your credit rebuilding review and put it up this weekend. I will send you an email when it goes live.
Sounds good. For some reason, I am not receiving the email notifications, not even in SPAM though. Just link the blog entry here in a reply and I’ll monitor this page manually.
Hi Michael,
I’ve a debt from a utility company in Arizona which was last paid on in March, 2011. I moved to Missouri in 2011 and then to Illinois in 2015. This debt is not showing up on any of my three credit reports (as of Feb 2016) however about 9 months ago I received a mailing in Missouri from a collection agency regarding the debt. I don’t remember if they offered a settlement or not, but I did not respond and tossed the letter. The debt was for an electric company. I had service in my name in Missouri without issue and when I moved to Illinois got a letter of good credit and payment record from them. I am currently cleaning up two small debts (less than $300) on my credit report and have settled with both and they are paid.
My questions are:
Is the SOL for collections based upon Arizona, where the company is based and service was provided or is it based upon my current state of residence. As I understand it, utility service is a “written contract” and so if I had remained in Missouri, the collections SOL would have expired in 2017, but now that I am in IL that is now out to 2021. Is that correct?
Is the collections reporting SOL nearly up for this debt? It thus far has never appeared or been reported. Should it suddenly appear will it remain now for 7.5 years?
Will my settling of these two unrelated small debts suddenly “wake up” this utility company to actively come after me? I have no real property and have been out of work due to medical issues for a year.
Thanks
The date you were considered delinquent is when the 7 and one half year clock starts ticking for the unpaid power bill to drop from your credit. That time frame does not change at all if it somehow shows up next month, whether you pay it or leave things as they are.
The SOL to legitimately sue for a written agreement looks to be 10 years in IL. If you were sued, it would be in IL in my experience. They cannot say they did not know you were not in AZ anymore, so I do not think any filing would happen there by mistake (though that happens).
Updates of newly reported settlements do tend to catch the eye of other debt collectors. If things got quiet, it would be normal to get collection letters and/or phone calls anew.
If you are worried about your efforts to rebuild your credit, and are not sure what to do about the old utility bill, consider doing nothing for the moment. You could save money at every opportunity moving forward so that you are prepared to pay a settlement if the account shows up on your credit, or certainly if collections escalate.
I cover your concern in this video about having to worry that doing the right thing can harm your credit more.
Thank you so much for your response! So that I understand you correctly, no matter if the unpaid utility bill from Arizona (which has never appeared) suddenly appears on my credit report now the clock would have began ticking when I was first considered delinquent in April 2011. So seven and a half years on would be October 2018.
If it appears, that would be the drop-off date in terms of the credit reporting SOL. If it appears and persists after that or appears after that, it must be removed provided nothing has happened to “restart the clock”.
The same holds true for any other collection efforts which might begin or reports appearing as a result of activity in my credit file. I must check to see if the delinquent date is past the reporting and also the actionable SOL.
Sometimes it appears you wake a bunch of monsters when you try to settle a few minor debts; I’m not sure how actively these collection agencies monitor my file, but I worry I might be now at the forefront and have singled myself out.
I’m afraid the fact that I appear to have moved to a more collection-friendly state (Illinois has a 5 year oral, 10 year written/promissory and 5/10 year open ended account SOL.) just might set the dark dogs of collection anew on me again. (AHA he’s moved to a state where we can get him now.!)
I’m not sure what these categories mean-what is a medical bill for example?-
I’m not planning on inquiring about that utility bill, I’ll go no where near it–and I hope that particular dog remains fast asleep in its corner. The fact they’ve now got 4 extra years might stave off a lawsuit for a little while longer. I’ve no assets, equity or income at the moment due to severe illness so I am not the most attractive target, nonetheless I am saving money at every opportunity.
October 2018 it is no matter what. Anything on your credit that would try to make this drag out longer can be disputed and deleted. And on that note, keep good records or chronological notes in case you ever need to refer back to different details.
There is no legitimate was to restart the clock in this situation. The only possible way it drags on is if you are sued and a judgment entered. That would be a new 7 years over the same debt, but on the public record section of your credit reports. You are, of course, not going to allow things to get that far by saving up to settle if/when it proves necessary.
I am not sure what to make of your medical bill question. What is the frame of reference for your use of the word “categories”? Are you looking at your credit report?
Hello Michael,
I had a cell phone account back in 2007 which I paid my last bill and then cancelled service. Now after almost 9 years a collection agency is sending me bills for deactivation charges for that account. I obviously do not have proof or receipts of that time so I am unsure what to do. I may have still been under contract but I did pay my last bill in full and cancelled the same day. I have been rebuilding my credit and it is improving gradually but I am afraid that this new development from nearly 9 years ago will jeopardize my credit. If I don’t pay it will it start affecting my credit? What should I do?
Is there anything on your credit reports about this bogus collection right now? If the account is 9 years in the rear view mirror there should be no reference on your credit,and you should not have to worry about it popping up. If this does show on your credit let me know and we can go from there.
What is the name of the collection agency involved?
The agency’s name is Convergent Outsourcing, Inc. and none of the current credit reports I’ve acquired have indicated the Sprint Account since 2014. Which is when my credit finally started improving.
Hi Michael,
I am doing a report for school and I had to pull my credit report. There is a debt listing that says closed in 2007. It was GE credit, I paid it by settlement for the original amount owed minus the interest. I thought it should have dropped off in 2014, but it shows an information update on January 24, 2016! It also shows closed but shows my payment is current every month from Feb 2014 (when it should have dropped off) to the end of 2015 and not reported for January 2016 yet. I’m not sure what to do! They changed the name of their bank but i still don’t understand why it updated this month or how to remove it. The amount shows zero but it still affects me I think because it shows an account closed by the creditor as still active this month. Please help me understand what to do.
I would dispute this as too old to be on your credit reports. Be clear in your letter to the credit bureaus. Identify all dates and activities from back then and demand the account be deleted.
Keep a copy of you letter and send it certified mail. Let me know what happens when they respond.
Is it just one credit bureau that has your old settled GE Capital account showing (now Synchrony)?
Hi I am intrigued by the information you have provided and have a similar question. So I have an original debt from 2006 to a payday lender that has since aged off my credit report about 6 months to a year ago. Well I received a call from a debt collector today trying to collect on that debt. I am not even sure if the amount they are reporting is correct as the debt is 10 years old. Can they put this back on my credit report and what legal options do I have. I find it funny that now that my credit report is virtually clean and that I am rebuilding my credit this comes back up. Please help if you can?
Thank You!
Norma
You should not see something like this pop up on your credit reports again after it already aged off. If that were to happen post an update and we can go from there.
Debt collectors can still legitimately try to collect from you, but after the SOL for credit reporting has passed, and once the SOL to sue has expired, they are limited to calls and letters. You can put an end to those too. You can send the debt collector a cease communication notice. Be sure you keep a copy of your letter and send certified mail. If you receive any collection calls or letters after that post an update.
Hello Michael,
I have a few debts over 10 years old that have surpassed the SOL and dropped off my credit report. I’m still getting letters from debt collectors though. I just recently received one that is offering to “satisfy in full” if I pay 10% of the balance, which is a really good deal. While researching through the internet I became a little concerned though that paying this old debt might actually do more harm than good. My questions: 1)If I pay the 10% as “satisfied in full” will this then reappear on my credit report? 2) If I pay the 10% as “satisfied in full” will this then affect the other 2 SOL accounts that have also dropped off my credit report? – Thank you,
You do not reset the credit reporting SOL by paying collection accounts such as yours.
You would not impact the other 2 old collections that you are not settling.
What is your motivation for paying the old debt?
Thank you Michael,
Honestly, before it was just a major feeling of moral obligation that I had to pay these debts back. But now, it’s more of a feeling of fear that has me in a panic. I have 3 debts that continue to accruing interest. Even though they do not appear on my credit report anymore I get scared that one day I’m going to get a bill that says I owe 1 million dollars. I feel like it might somehow come back to haunt me one day.
I saw the response you provided to Norma’s inquiry. If I send the collection agency a cease communication notice, on what grounds do I have to stand on, if any? Or do I simply just tell them to stop contacting me? If I were to do so, would they be able to sell the debt to another collector? And that collector to another and so forth and so forth? Or will they eventually go away?
Also, I read somewhere that if I take a settlement offer that the money owed becomes taxable income and I would have to pay taxes on it? Is that correct?
I am going to do a video for my You Tube channel about the morality of debt. You might want to subscribe to my “debtbytes” channel if you are not already. You will appreciate the video.
Those three collections are often referred to as Zombie debt. They are dead to the point of being uncolletable and cannot appear anywhere on your credit. Yes the collection agencies can still technically write to you and call you, but your right to tell them to cease communicating with you is federal law. Here is a good cease communication letter example. You want to download the one at the bottom of the bullet list “Wants the debt collector to stop any and all contact”. That letter is made publicly available by the CFPB, a federal consumer protection agency tasked with regulating debt collection laws.
As far as getting some letter in the mail about owing millions, it won’t happen, and it would not matter if it did because it is zombie debt.
Many debt collectors do resell debt. Some of the big companies like Midland Funding and Portfolio Recovery Associates are no longer allowed to. I suspect that will become more normal (not being able to resell). But the resale does not change the character of the debts. They are still zombies. You would likely resend the cease communication letter again to each new debt collector. This angle may change later too – where the last debt collector would be responsible for passing on to the new owner that you requested all communications to stop – as your legal right.
If you settle a debt, and more than 600 dollars is forgiven, the portion of the debt that is cancelled can be treated as income for some people. Be sure and read that article before moving forward with any settlement.
I just checked my credit score through credit karma, it shows a score of 594 and a collections account of just under $2,500 opened in March 2010. I have never received any communication from any collection agency about owing money to anyone for any reason. Can you help me understand what I need to do to resolve this issue? I live in Reno, Nevada.
Is yours a case of not knowing of any unpaid debt whatsoever, or are you aware of some bills that you could not keep up with from years ago?
If you are not sure what the debt is for you will want to reach out to the debt collector in order to learn what you can. It could be an error that is showing up on your credit reports.
Post an update with what you learn.
I have been reading about the statute of limitations regarding the collection of a debt in my state. I live in California. In California, the law (in my layman interpretation) states California Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 312 et seq that 4 years (written), 2 years (oral), 2 years (injury), 3 years (property damage). What I can’t find is when the statute starts and ends. That is my question here. Does the statute start from the date of last payment, the date of the charge off? What if a payment was never made? Finally, what about when creditor or collection agency renews the debt after so many years (seemingly giving new dates to the credit report agencies to renew debt) ?
The SOL to use the courts to collect generally starts from the date you first missed a payment.
If a payment was never made it would likely be the date one was first due (but never made).
There is no legitimate way to renew an unpaid debt for credit reporting purposes unless you are sued and a judgment gets entered (has a whole new 7 year shelf life).
You can renew the SOL to sue in some very limited ways, but that does not appear to be the question.
You can dispute any later collection item that attempts to reage the debt as if it were a more recent collection item than it actually is. Be sure any dispute you file is consistent with your goals for resolving debts.
Hi Michael,
I have a question. I had a repossession occur about 8 years ago and still owed about $8k that was never paid. It has since been removed from all my credit reports due to the age, however, I am wondering if this will still show up if I apply for a new auto loan? I had heard something that lenders can still access that history even if completely removed from all credit reports. Is this true?
Thank you!
It is possible I suppose, but automated underwriting is likely not going to see it to factor loan approval and interest rates. And most lenders (not just auto lenders) use automated loan software.
Hi
Here I am once again finding myself struggling with a difficult debt collector and just when I thought I had cleared up all erroneous information on my credit report.
I just received a copy of my TransUnion credit report. Under adverse accounts, a debt collector is trying to collect on an account I know nothing about. When I tried to call and speak to them they would tell me nothing other than a charge off date of 2013 on an account opened in 2002. When I asked for the last payment they show on the account, he said he didn’t have that nor did he have to provide me with that. Federal Law, Man (his words not mine). When I asked for a date of when the account was first opened, again he said he didn’t have that nor did he have to provide me with that. Federal Law, Man (his words not mine). Luckily, the original creditor was on the credit report (cell phone company). When I asked the debt collector for a phone number to the cell phone co, the original account number, etc., once again he said he didn’t have that nor did he have to provide me with that. Federal Law, Man. And of course he used a couple of expletives, said that I was a possible drug addict when I told him I was homeless, threatened me with court action, and reporting the info to the two other credit report agencies. I told him I think someone might have stole my identity and opened up this account. He said it didn’t matter, I was still responsible for the debt and hung up on me. I tried calling back several times to get more info only to be hung up on again and again.
After speaking with the debt collector, I called TransUnion and filed a dispute for the adverse account. They told me they would investigate and get back to me within 30 days. I’m still waiting for my other two credit reports. My question is where do I go from here in the meantime? I also believe the debt collector is refiling the claim after every seven years….to try to renew the debt.
Thank you
Lucky
What are the particulars you can share about the phone company reporting?
What is the name of the debt collection agency the collector works for?
What state are you in?
Had a defaulted HSBC acct which was settled in full in 2007-. HSBC reported correctly. In 2012 Cap1 bought HSBC accts., including mine and began reporting a Cap 1 Acct with an HSBC acct no.
Two different Cap1 banks are reporting the same acct to two different CRAs. Neither is reporting the date of default- have disputed many times- always comes back as verified
Cap1 claimed, to CFPB, that removal date was june 2015; but still reporting as stated.
Is this legal? Cap1 bought nothing and told the CFPB that they bought an account with a balance; but would not collect on it because it was settled in full. There does not appear to be any cases with rulings related to similar events. Would appreciate your comments.
I would refile a complaint with the CFPB about the prior complaint response where Capital One said they would delete in June, but still have not.
I would also consult with an experienced FCRA consumer law attorney and see if they think this is worth pursuing. I can email you contact info to attorneys in your area that specialize in this if you post the name of a nearby larger city.
Yes I will refuse with CFPB and yes please forward attorney names- I am in Wsstern Pa
I sent you an email with contact details to an experienced attorney you can talk to about your credit reporting issue. Let me know how you progress.
Hi Michael,
I have a question on whether I should dispute something on my credit report or not. I had a vehicle repossessed back in October 2009 and still owed about $7k. I was never in a financial position to make any payments or negotiate with the collection agency, so I have never spoken with or contacted them. The original creditor is not even listed on the 3 credit reports anymore, as I disputed that it was being listed twice (the original creditor and the collection agency) and it was removed recently. The collection agency has had the account since 2010, but it does not list the last payment date or anything along those lines from 2009. It only lists an “opened date” of September 13th, 2012, which is not accurate. I know it’s past the SOL (the debt was in Virginia) but still under the 7.5 year timeframe to be removed from the CRAs. Would you recommend that I wait it out to fall off or dispute the debt since they don’t have accurate dates listed?
Please let me know! I appreciate the help, and any other advice you’d have to give in my situation. I’m trying to clean up my credit and get an auto loan shortly.
I would dispute the debt collectors entry as not accurate. You may hear from them about collection again, but the SOL to sue on this debt is up in Virginia, and it should fall off your credit reports soon.
Who is the debt collector reporting on your credit?
Accelerated Financial Solutions
I also don’t remember when the date of the last payment was on the vehicle. Just that it was repossessed in October 2009, and if my memory serves me correctly, it was unpaid for a number of months before it was taken. As I stated before, the agency reporting the debt has no information at all on dates beyond the opened date that’s incorrect. Not sure if this info helps at all.
Hi, I live in Texas and the SOL expired December 2014 for my bad accounts. Most of them show up as due to age off December 2017. I have a judgment that was entered in May 2011. It shows up as public record along with two bad trade lines that are associated with it, one was a repossession and the other was an unsecured loan, both are from the same creditor. These two are killing my score because they are showing as open charge offs, 30 days late, but it does show in the payment history that I sent my last payment at the end of 2010. My questions are these: if I pay off the judgement now, will it reset the age off date on the two bad trade lines? Should I dispute the open/30 days late status? Should I just wait for the actual accounts to fall off before paying off the judgment? We want to purchase a home but don’t want to extend our wait unnecessarily, how would you go about it? Thanks in advance.
Paying off or settling the judgment will not reset any dates for the other collection entries to age off of your credit reports.
I would not wait until the original charge offs and repossessions fall off your credit before negotiating the judgment. The judgment debt is likely growing from interest. If you can afford to resolve it now you will often save more money.
The judgment is going to turn up when you go to finance a home, and regardless of whether it is on your credit reports or not. The judgment normally needs to be resolved before you get a loan approved.
My first goal would be to resolve the judgment and get that updated to show as satisfied. Only after I get the judgment dealt with would I mess with disputing or applying for credit.
Michael,
I have a Citifinancial account from 2009 due to the construction crash my income dropped drastically and i have been unable to pay. The last payment i made to them was March 2010. It is due to come off my credit January 2017. My husband and i went through a christian debt counselor to clear up our bills we owed and have been able to do so with everything except Citifinancial. Our counselor has contacted Citi to see what we could do to get this account cleared up seeing as it is the only one left. They have no record any longer of my account or who has it. I have not been contacted by anyone in years nor is anything other than Citifinancial on my credit report. What would be the best way to handle this account because we are still currently paying into the debt counselor account and they have offered to go ahead and close the account and refund us the full amount in our account but i dont want 2 months or more to go by and all of sudden i start getting contacted by someone representing them. I am in the state of Georgia and am pretty sure they statue of limitations is close at hand. Please help
How long ago was it that your other accounts were taken care of? Have there been any recent credit reporting inquiries by known debt collectors? How much was the balance owed to Citi Financial when you stopped paying? Is there a balance showing as due to Citi Financial right now on your credit reports, or does it show as zero balance due?
Hello, I live in Florida and about 5 years ago T-Mobile approved me to cancel my account with penalty fees as my area was not serviceable. Years later I am receiving letters from debt collectors trying to collect money from the closed T-Mobile account.
My main issue is that I am unsure whom to contact about this issue, the T-Mobile account is closed completely. I really would love to remove this inquiry off my credit report as it has negatively impacted my credit for many years and would love to rebuild my credit. Any advice would suffice, thank you in advance.
If it were me, my first approach would be to put together a chronology of events that begins with opening the account, and on through to when approximately the account was closed for lack of service etc.
I would want to send a credit report dispute to all of the credit bureaus that the debt is not valid, but also include a dispute or notification of a sort to any debt collectors that are currently trying to get you to pay.
Once you have the chronology and dates of all that took place together, you can call me for a quick consult at 800-939-8357, choose option 2 to get me direct.
Thank you for your answer, there was a typo in my original comment. I meant to write, “Tmobile approved me to cancel my service WITHOUT penalty fees.”
I HAVE A DEBT IN COLLECTIONS FROM 2009. I RECIEVED A CALL THIS MORNING FROM PORTFOLIO RECOVERY (DEBT WAS ORIGINALLY WITH HSBC BANK) THEY TRIED TO GET ME TO MAKE A PAYMENT BUT I THOUGHT I AM ALMOST TO THE 7 YEAR MARK FOR IT TO DROP OFF MY CREDIT REPORT. WILL THIS INDEED DROP OFF MY CREDIT REPORT IN 2016 OR DID I RESTART THIS TIMELINE BY ANSWERING THIS CALL? I DID NOT SET UP ANY PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS. THE LADY ON THE PHONE WAS ACTUALLY REALLY PUSHY AND I ENDED UP HANGING UP ON HER.
What state are you in? Can you confirm the date you last made a payment to anyone about this account?
Michael,
From 2007 thru 2010, our bank accounts were accessed by a third party. This caused cancellation of electronic payments, $7500 missing from the accounts. This was reported to the banks the credit card companies. In April, 2008 our bank verified the illegal access to our accounts had occurred for 18 months and they would make the attempt to close the breach, which included data stored in their system. Subsequently, we learned that our accounts were accessed through the Quicken Online Banking application used by our bank.
This was all reported to law enforcement, yet no action was taken due to “the amounts of the theft were too low to assign the case to an investigative unit” Despite the reports, we continued to see evidence of tampering and the credit institutions were uncooperative in our requests for assistance..
We even sent documentation and over a thousand files to the Department of Justice. In April, 2010, a 41 page affidavit was sent to each creditor, the FTC and the DOJ, documenting the fraud and demanding a full audit of access and transactions on our accounts. This included our mortgage account. Oddly, each banking institution, refused to respond. We had been told we had the right to withhold payments until such legal request was satisfied.
Since no responses were received, the accounts became long past-due and finally we decided not to pay on the subject accounts.
Not a single creditor, other than our fraudulent mortgage holder, made any attempts to collect. Those debts sold to third party collectors, in each and every case, were dropped by the collectors based upon the documents provided to them.
These items appear on our credit reports by the original debtors. They are all 48+ months old. Having been residents in Virginia, they became legally uncollectable after 36 months, yet Bank of America and CapitalOne keep reporting balances due each month thereby reducing our credit scores by showing current delinquencies. I have been unsuccessful in getting the CRA’s to show a zero balance due and refrain from using the last activity date on the account as the current month.
I have repeatedly requested deletion based upon suspicion of potential fraud as well. All CRA’s have an extended fraud alert.
The mortgage is another long story. The CFPB has been useless. Any ideas?.
It sounds like the banks think they are reporting legitimate balances you did not pay (at least partially legitimate). Based on all that you have been through, it sounds like you would have to sue them to get this rectified. There will be a cost to that to consider.
Have you spoken with any experienced FCRA attorneys in Virginia?
Michael,
In November of 2008 I got very ill with cancer and was out of work for some time. I have 5 credit cards where the date of last payment was between December 23, 2008 and January 3, 2009. These cards (Capital One and GMAC) are still reporting, and still reporting balances. I have 4 credit cards (same last payment range) that are still reporting, but are reporting a 0 balance. I am in North Carolina. I have many medical collections but that is another story. I am getting conflicting information on when these should fall off my credit report: 1) date of first delinquency (would that be the 30 on the credit report?), 2) date of last activity (explained to me as when the creditor sold or put the account in collections) and 3) the date last reported to the credit bureau. I would like to buy a home inside of a year and need some clarification on this point. Thanks.
Add 7 years and 6 months from the date you missed that first payment. That would mean accounts that last paid at the end of 2008 could stay on your reports as long as mid year 2016.
Anyone reporting a zero balance on your credit reports will likely have sold the debt off to debt buyers. Anyone reporting a balance still would likely be found to have retained the legal rights to collect.
If you are looking to buy a home in a years time you will probably want to settle these accounts or extend your goal out 6 to 12 months.
Michael,
My husband had a car repossessed in 2009. We haven’t got all the documentation from the original bank/lender yet, but he’s thinking it was sometime between June-August (2009). Huntington Bank had it on his credit report until recently, with no outstanding balance listed. We thought everything was taken care of. Until a collection agency, Vance and Huffman in Virginia showed up on his transunion report with a balance! They have it listed as a new loan as of May 2015. We are from West Virginia and as far as I know, WV’s SOL is 6 years on a promissory note debt (car loan).
No one has contacted him via phone or e-mail. Luckily, I just happened to look on creditkarma! We just bought a house in July and this wasn’t listed on his report. What should I do? Dispute it with Transunion first to have them change the ‘start date’ of the debt? If the SOL law in WV is 6 years, should I just let it fall off his report after I dispute it?
Thanks for your advice!
I would file a credit reporting complaint against the debt collector with the CFPB (review the link in its entirety to better understand why).
I would do that instead of disputing it in this instance, where I may suggest the credit reporting dispute in other situations.
Hi there. First, I just want to say thank you ahead of time for your help. I’ve been looking for someone to turn to for help and just didn’t know where to go. I’m 28 and when I was 18 I made a couple mistakes, made relationship, unplanned pregnancy, etc. I had two credit cards and as a single mom one thing led to another and I fell behind. Anyway. Here it is 2015 and finally I’m married and trying to fix my mistakes from a decade ago. I’ve been living on cash/checks/debit for 10 years. No one would give me a credit card, home loan, nothing because of these mistakes. So here goes. In 2011 I ran an Experian report and it showed about $4,797.00 of dept spread between 5 different things. Two credit cards, dish network, an ATT bill, a bank. The makings of a home that was destroyed basically. Anyway, when I started over with my daughter I couldn’t pay these things. I tried for a while but I just couldn’t. I called and begged for a payment plan but no one would work with me. No one would settle. They wanted lump sum payments and I didn’t have 800 here or 1000 there just laying around. Eventually I just got tired of trying and ignored them. Now it’s to the point where I need to fix it all and every once in a while I’ll apply for a small credit card online hoping I’ll try to build something etc and get denied and just bummed all over again. No one would give me a chance. I don’t make awful money. I’m a 911 operator in Illinois. I’ve been employed at my job for 8 years, 5 full time. I’m dependable. But no one sees that. So I signed up for creditKarma last year, and they couldn’t even generate me a score. I just got my Experian report again 2015, going to try to pick one of these debts and just buckle down, but they’re gone. There are two negative things on it that wasn’t on the 2011 report that came back to haunt me but both of which I’m already handling, so they aren’t really of concern to me right now. My issue is the other 4 things from the 2011 report totaling $3,971 are NOT on the 2015 report. They say charge/written off on the 2011 and say they were to stay on until ex. Jun 2014 or whatever date and are no longer listed on my 2015 report. I know that these debts are still owed but (if morals were not a little at play) would I still HAVE to pay these debts if they’re not being reported and no ones after me? Have they just given up on me? Will they come back after me? Will these unpaid debts hurt me even though they’re not even shown any more on my latest report? And how do I go about building new credit if no one will give me a chance to start over? Should I try to get a credit card with my husband signing under me? When someone looks at my income to debt ratio it looks great. I pay cash for everything. I have no bills in my name. Everything is in my husbands name. We have separate finances and ever since I messed up I’ve always held the opinion if I didn’t have the cash, I didn’t need it but my credit it hurting me. . How can I know that I’ll get a card without my credit being ran every time I try for nothing? Is a secured credit card the way to go? I know I probably sound like the most awful person in the world. I just made some bad judgement calls at a young age and trusted someone to start my life with too young and when it didn’t work out I couldn’t do it all and I’m tired of still paying for that mistake all these years later. Please help me. Thank you.
-Rachel N Thompson
Paying debts from that far back that are now off your credit reports is a personal choice. Because it is likely the debts were sold off to junk debt investors by now, it is harder to make a moral argument that paying the debs would make anyone whole. But I understand it when people choose to.
The debts did not go away per say, collectors can still call and send you letters. But you can tell them to stop contacting you and they must do so (send any cease communication request in writing and use certified mail).
Start rebuilding with your husband as a cosigner if you like. You may want to try applying for a secured card too.