Do account drop off (date of last activity)

Can't answer this question but if the account is in good standing it really helps you out so I wouldn't worry about it. Anyway someone here is sure to help you out.

It should be from the last date of activity. Let's say you paid off an instalment loan on good terms Jan 2000. That should remain on your report until at least Jan 2010.
I have also heard the theory that after the frist couple of years, the older line don't weigh as much in the credit score as the newer. They still count, but not as much as a current good line.

Sometimes I wish the agencies would just say how they score once and for all and stop being all secretive!

How does it work if you take out a credit card and charge something and pay it off a month later in full. I hear that it raises your score. Is this true? My husband does this..he will use his sears card and he hates having a balance so he usually pays it in a month unless it is a higher amount then he will make it in two payments. His credit score is awesome but then it probaly came from paying all our loans off early..So does the credit card thing work?

The credit card is still open so it should report in good standing, where a loan once it is paid off, it is not an open account anymore so it would be considered closed and satisfied when it is paid off. So one would remain an open and in good standing, where the other would be considered closed and in good standing. Hope this clears things up. I hear it is not good to pay a loan off early, it does not establish payment history, payment history is what part of your credit history is rated one. At least this is my understanding of how it all works.

WE usually don't pay off extremely early. say it is a 4 year loan we usually pay it in three. I try to always leave a little balance on the credit card cause I heard it doesn't help if you pay it off quickly but yet I have also been told you can charge one day and pay it the next and it helps your credit. It seems my husbands scor is always higher than mine so I wonder whos way of thinking is correct?

This is the breakdown I've usually seen on how your score is calculated:

35% — punctuality of payment in the past (only includes payments later than 30 days past due)
30% — the amount of debt, expressed as the ratio of current revolving debt (credit card balances, etc.) to total available revolving credit (credit limits)
15% — length of credit history
10% — types of credit used (installment, revolving, consumer finance)
10% — recent search for credit and/or amount of credit obtained recently

For you and your husband, assuming all else equal, it would seem the difference would be in the ratio of debt - he would have a 0 and you would have a 10% - both well under the 30% usually suggested. I don't know if the difference between 0 and 10 would equate to a significant score difference too.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I also was thinking after I already posted that last post ...maybe income had something to do with it...his being way more than mine. It does make sense that since I don't pay mine off completely that it would make his score higher.

I'll tell ya............the CB's can be confusing!! 'You' may think your Credit Score is low on ONE CB and it's ok.And...vice a versa. I have a few outstanding debts, on my CR. However...they are gonna 'fall off' soon. SOO....I decided just to leave them alone!!

That is pretty much what I decided to do to. I have only ever checked my score on one. The one outstanding debt that I do have is actually on there twice..One from the original creditor and one from a collection agency. I didn't think both could report. There only seems to be one thing different in the two and thats the dollar amount. The original creditors has $1640 and the collection Agency has $1641. The collection agency lists the original creditor as Capitol One, which it is. So I figure once it falls off if the other one doesn't I will dispute it then.

Well, it seems that the CA has bought the debt from Cap one. So you have to pay the CA. Now send debt validation letter to Cap one.. and you can always dispute both of them but with different reasons.

Yeah..'Fireyone'.......doesn't make sense, to me anyway, to 're-start' a debt, if it's falling off soon. I think you and I are on the 'same page' with this thing. At least I know my Credit score will go up, a bit.

Well Fireyone,

If your debt with Capital one drops off, that is because the OC charged off the debt and sold it to a CA. There is also a chance that it has appointed the CA to collect on the debt. A charged off debt does not mean that you cannot get sued for it. Think twice :)

Carol, I'm sure my debt is past SOL so how can they sue. I was told (by an atty. handling a different matter) that once it passes SOL they no longer have the right to sue they can just keep pressuring to collect the debt. So how are you coming up with this theory? Myfunboat...I have no clue but I don't think they can relist it..someone here I'm sure will help you.

I would guess that they have illegally re-written the date of delinquency. Send the CA a DV letter, and dispute the entry with the credit bureaus as obsolete. If this does not rectify the situation, find a lawyer and sue.

Carol, I'm sure my debt is past SOL so how can they sue. I was told (by an atty. handling a different matter) that once it passes SOL they no longer have the right to sue

SOL is a defense you (or your attorney) must raise. If you are sued but fail to assert this affirmative defense, you will probably wind up with a judgment against you.

The option to sue is always there, I have one that waited until just before the sol ran out and we are eventually going for an arbitration it was supposed to be in January and I have not heard anything yet.

Fireyone,
how many accounts do you have in this situation? Are they offering you any type of break? If they are and you are willing to take a settlement offer, you can do a payment plan that will work for you and get rid of it. They will try to collect the account 20 years from now, the collection activity has the potential to always be there, especially now that junk debt buying has become a huge industry, if you have the resources and can work out a payment plan with them, I would take the opportunity to pay it off and get rid of it. Or you can dodge collection efforts for the rest of your life, as far as suing, it all depends on the company, mine were all in sol, two chose to sue, three worked with me, one of the two that chose to sue worked with me after the summons and we never went to court. So they all handle things differently, if they are going to sue, it will be JUST before the sol runs out, that was the experience that I have had anyway.

Goodnature, I have only two debts like this. The one I tried to work with years ago and got absolutely no where. They were just soo ignorant and mean. Once a year they send something along the lines of settlement but they only give you like 1 month to take the offer. It is never the right time of year being right after Christmas and when I am not qorking. Finacially right now I am in a pretty awful situation with just scraping by due to health reasons. They arose midsummer last year and have pretty much put a big dent in my income. Hoping to resolve the problem this year and work on paying off the couple big debts I have accumulated from this misfortune.

Hopefully you will get all straightened out soon and things will start looking up for you, hope your health improves. Better days a head sooner or later. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I know thngs can get overwheleming..take it from me!1 The only thing you CAN do is take things' one day at a time.' I;ve said that, on a FEW threads. Everyday is a "new day." Take one 'ITEM' (on your CR..( at a time. if you think about ALL of it (at the same time..) it can drive you crazy. Hope this calms you down, a bit, FIREYONE. God Bless.

2sdchargers_63 how do you mean this? what do you do with that and the other things?? Sorry but I missed the line I think!!

Thanks guys your support is encouraging.

This is how I was TRYING to come across.......'SCNUCK'..... 'we' have SOO many things we worry about. For example: If someone has ALOT of overdue accounts ( credit cards, medical bills,etc.) on their CR's, 'we' seem to PANIC (which, of course, is natural). I know people, with bad credit want to 'fix' tyheir credit and bring up their scores overnight,,shall we say. Well.......if you try to look at the 'WHOLE" picture, it can get reaslly overwhelming!! Trust me, I know!! But, if you take the debts and 'break them down' (look at each one 'individually'..) and work on the 'smallest' debt first. Try to save and pay off the 'smallest one', then the 'next smallest', etc. ONE DEBT at a time..ONE day at a time. At times, I know it seems like we're in such a 'cycle', that we feel like we can't do ANYTHING for ourselves...and we feel useless to ourselves. "Rome wasn't built in a day", and our credit can't be fixed in a day, either. Hope this explaination clarifies my point abit better.

I agree with sdchargers, I think you can only handle what you can handle, so there is no need to get all upset about the things that you can not control, if you can concentrate on one, then you have an awesome start and you were better than you were yesterday when you could take care of none. eventually, through time you would have them all tackled, one by one.

Sometimes when there are too many wolves at the door it can make you feel like Rome should've had been built..like yesterday!!! I myself am going to leave all the medical bills for last..continue to pay the minimum...they have no interest. I've got three major ones myself and then the medical..All are current except the monster from 5 years past. We will all get there. We may not be perfect but makes us damn close.

I just got a letter in the mail today from one that I do believe was taken care of, I am not going to deal with this after a long day at work, I need to do something with it just not tonight.

See Goodnatured that is exactly what I was dreading. If you take care of a collection and they still harass you. Thats why I keep pondering if I want to even contact my CA and take care of it. At least now I am in the SOL. If I pay or start payment I just took out my only line of defense. I have read sooo many nightmare stories about these people. I hope it is one you took care of and that with proper proof you can tell them where to stick it.

Even if it isn't I am not gonna sweat it, I will deal with it, when I look on my credit report it was only for $356, so I could probably settle it for a whole lot less, I may have already taken care of it, but I am not going near that filing cabinet tonight. I am actually thinking about a cease and desist, because if I did not take care of it, it is well past the statute of limitations. We will see, I will get more into it one evening this week.

I thought of sending one of mine a cease and desist. haven't actually got the guts to do it yet. If the SOL starts at 30 days late then I am definately in them as of last Dec. They called once here at my new number and asked me what I planned on doing with it. I said "nothing" and humg up. Knock on wood but they haven't called back but then again I don't pick up unknown name anymore or weird numbers. I had party's who block there number excluded from calling in but I guess it doesn't pertain to "unknown's".

You really need to get their address and send them a cease and desist letter, that way they will stop the collection effort, you need to explain in the letter that the debt is out of the statute of limitations, they will keep hounding until you do this. If they persist after the letter is recieved then they violate federal fair debt collection act and you have them by the tail.
send the letter certified, return reciept requested so that you have a signature that someone at their company signed for it.

How can I be positive that I am past SOL? If PA is 4 years then I am assuming it is past. On the OC account history It says 30 days as of Dec 2003. The CA who bought it doesn't list anything at all but when I talked to them the called it my old Providian account. Under the CA all I see is past due as of Dec. 2007. I am assuming this is when they bought it.Both amounts (On midland and providian) are the same. Midland has status details that list it to continue on file until July 2010. So wouldn't that put it past statutes ? I really wish I had money to just be rid of it but there is just no way...

Your are past the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania with that December 2003 date. They will still continue to harass and try to collect for a long time to come. I wish you luck with this, you need to read up on the law on fair debt collections webpage.

If sued, you should be able to raise SOL as a defense (as long as your last payment was not within the last four years), but the negative tradelines on your credit report can remain for up to seven years from date of charge off.

If the SOL does expire and the debt does 'fall off' your Credit Report, how can that same debt be put BACK on, your Credit Report? I thought I read that, in this thread..this happened to someone. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

It does not fall off once the sol expires, it will continue to stay on there. As far as the double reporting, as soon as a collection agency buys it they start reporting it. So as many collection agencies, that is the times it will show up on your report.

If anyone is interested, an individual, on this forum, gave me a WONDERFUL website that explains SOL, etc...very clearly. And this website has ALOT of information..anything from the CB's to the CA's. If someone would like it, please PM me. Thanks.

Hello, MEME. Glad you've joined us on the Forum. You can 'dispute' the debt with the CB's. You can do this VIA computer and send a letter to them explaining the debt has been on your Credit for longer than it suppose to. However....you DO need the proof of this. I guess your proof would be a copy of your CR. Good Luck.

If you're making a payment towards a debt that's about to get past the SOL, then it will reset the SOL clock. I'm not sure of what's gonna happen in your case, as you haven't mentioned which state you're in.