help with wifes debt collectors

If you get calls from creditors, you need not worry until and unless they report the debt to the credit bureaus or they send you a debt validation notice within 5 days from the date of initial correspondence over phone. If you find the debt listed in the credit report, you should send a debt validation letter and they should validate it within 30 days in order to proceed further towards collecting the debt. You should not pay to any creditor or collection agency till you get the debt validated.

Even if the creditor validates the debt, you need to check whether the statute of limitation on the debt has expired or not. If the SOL has expired, you need not pay off the debt. The SOL starts after 6 months from the date you have made your last payment towards the credit card. Now, SOL is 6 years in NY for all types of debt and so if the listing has gone out of your report, it is most probable that the SOL has expired. But if you can tell us the last payment made towards the credit card debt, we can help you out in the forum.

I would not pay this debt. This debt is 13 years old and almost double the SOL as long as your wife has not made any payments after 2001/2002 then she is not legally entitled to pay. As Anthony said if you can provide us with the date of last payment it would be easier to tell. Has she ever made any payment to any debt collectors. Once a payment is made the SOL begins all over again from the date of last payment.

If the last payment was made in 1995, your statute of limitation on the debt has expired since the SOL varies from 3 years to 10 years depending upon the state where you have signed the loan agreement. Hence you are not required to pay off the outstanding debt amount. If the creditors disturb you over phone, you can simply send a cease and desist letter which will stop them for harassing you.