I see you people have good info out here. Need your advice with this one. A collection agency has been after me for a 10 year old debt. They have send letters to sue me. I have been laid-off from job and trying to bring up my own business. I don't have much to spend on an attorney. Can anyone tell me should I contact the CA and ask for a settlement plan? I have seen pay for delete mentioned many times in the posts here. Will that help to remove the debt? Or shall I keep ignoring them because it is a very old debt, though I know owe it. A friend told me that even if I pay the debt it will remain on the report as negative for 7 years. I don't think I understand. I have not paid and for 10 years and it is still there and if I pay it will remain for 7 years, I will better not pay.
Hi Douglas,
Welcome to the Forum :)
Firstly which state do you stay in? The reason for the question is that your debt account is 10 years old. So before you proceed, you should check the Statute of Limitation of debts of the state you live in. Now if the debt the debt is past the Statute of Limitation (SOL) period, and you start repaying, it will cause the SOL period to restart. You should send a "Dispute Letter" to the credit bureaus to remove the debt from your credit report, if the SOL period has expired.
The collection agency cannot sue you for a debt which is well past the SOL period. If the collection agency continues to threaten you by sending letters to sue you must send them a "Cease and Desist Letter". You will find a sample "Cease and Desist Letter" at: http://www.creditmagic.org/repair/cease-desist-letter.html . I think after receiving this letter they will stop contacting you.
Keep me informed about any progress.