Bad Credit?
For around 5 and a half years I have been bothered by credit agencies for a debt of $2,500.00. I do not want to pay this debt because it was racked up by my ex-husband. I was told that after 7 years the bad credit will go away is this true? Also can a credit agency take you to court over the debt. Thanks for your help. I Forgot to mention I am Canadian.
Public Comments
- yes they can take you to court.
- No this is not true. After 7 years the credit companies will refile your claims and you will have another 7 years. It is a myth that this happens.
- Okay now the full answer. Negative information can only be reported on your credit report for 7 years from the date of the first delinquncy. So it can only be reported on your credit report for another year and a half. Creditors are NOT allowed to re-age this under any circumstances. Now, it actually does not "go away" after the 7 years, it just means that it can no longer be reported on your credit report. They can take you to court, but they only have a limited amount of time to do this. The Statute of Limitations vary by state but if this is a credit card that time is in the 2-6 year range from the date of your last delinquency. So if you are at 5.5 years you are either outside of it or very close to being outside where they can sue you. If they attempt to file suit against you after the time expires you can have it thrown out. The link below gives you a list by state for each Statute of Limitations.
- Hi sorry can't answer usa law. this is the uk board
- Yes, they can take you to court. Though they have a time limit for when they can sue you. Say, you are near your seven year mark and you make payment arrangements with a collection agency or the original creditor, the day you make that payment this starts the process over from the date of last activity, and you will have to wait another seven years before it is removed. So if you do feel that you owe the debt, I would not make arrangements with anyone, because it will be held against you. The collection agency does not remove them, the creditor can have them removed or you if you have proof that you do not owe the debt or the creditor does not have proof. There are letters that you can send creditors or you could settle for less than the original amount to get them off of your back. If you settle with the creditor make sure that you are prepared immediately to pay and get everything in writting before you send the money. You need to go to credit bureaus and ask for them to delete it from your credit report, they will go to the original creditor or the agency that purchased your debt and ask for proof, after the investigation if they cannot prove that you owe, then the item is removed. I would contact all three credit bureaus and they also way that you can go online and request for the items to be deleted. A website that I recommend is called www.over720.com, I am not affiliated with them, it is just a recommendation, it has a lot of good advice on it.
- A collection agency can take you to court, but there is a limited time frame, which may be more or less than seven years, and varies by state. This is called the statute of limitations. It may already be too late for them to do this, depending on your state. After 7 years, it is supposed to be removed from your credit report. This does not mean that they will stop calling and does not affect whether they can take you to court.
- it goes away after 7 years providing it was paid Check your state for statute of limitations for revolving credit and the letters to send to the collection agencies are also on the website, they can't take you to court, until they validate the debt, and if they do, you can sue them back read thru creditinfocenter.com
* Some answers may have been provided by Yahoo! Answers.