Hello -
Back in 2001, my husband got me a cell phone for Christmas. It was an AT&T cell phone. After about 3 months, I started to get charged roaming charges. I never even left my calling area. Most calls were placed within a 5 mile radius of my house. I argued back and forth for months with them. I would pay the standard monthly charge, but I refused to pay roaming charges when I was talking in my house!!! They finally turned off the phone for non-payment, and would not turn it back on until I paid the money. No. Well now, 6 years later, they are still on the credit report (obviously) under Palisades Collections. Palisades is licensed to collect debt here in Oregon (I checked). I was completely uneducated back then, and did not know what to do, but now I do. So my question is:
Should I get the debt validated?
How do I know when the clock started on the debt? How do I know if the clock has been restarted?
I live in Oregon. How do I find out the statute of limitations?
AT&T does not even exist in Oregon anymore. What are my chances of being able to get this line removed?
I still don't want to pay roaming fees for calls that I made inside my house. Do you think I will have to anyway?
Yes it is very important to ask the CA to validate the debt. If they can not validate it then they do not have the right to report it to the bureaus.
SOL is counted from the time you made the last payment on that account and if you haven't made any further payments thereafter then it has not restarted.
For removing the entry from your credit report, dispute it with the AT&T and the credit bureaus.
You can find out the SOL from this page : fair-debt-collection.com/SOL-by-State.html#38
I cannot tell you how many high bills I had to pay to AT&T because of their stupid roaming charges. After that last bill years ago, I switched to Cingular and got better monthly rates as well as no roaming fees BUT then low and behold who goes and buys out Cingular? None other than AT&T, so now I am back with them and every month my bill keeps getting higher and higher. It looks like I'll be going through the headache all over again. No roaming fees yet. Knock on wood.
I would definately make them validate before I would pay them. Make sure that you send it certified, return reciept requested so that you have a record of requesting it.