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Hello everybody,
My mother in law took a credit card in 1998 and used it till 2002. She never went delinquent and always paid the minimum amount each month. However, charges went up and it amounted to 15,000. She did not know how to pay off such a huge amount and stopped paying altogether in 2002. Nothing happened in all these years. However, suddenly last week, we received a letter from a collection agency demanding the money. I mailed a debt validation letter to the company. Rather than sending an answer to the validation, they send us a settlement letter offering 9,000. My question is, what should we do in this situation?
statute of limitations first
Hi Samuel,
What you need to do is first check the Statute of Limitations (SOL) on this debt in your state. SOL is the time limit within which the creditor may be able to sue you for not paying the debt. However, if the SOL has expired, the creditor won't be able to sue your mother in law, though the collection process may continue.
You shouldn't agree to the settlement without the debt validation. If you see that the SOL has not yet expired, you can send a second validation letter to the company through certified mail requesting a return receipt. If they fail to validate the debt this time too, you can dispute this debt with the credit bureaus.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Aaron
What is the bank for the credit card company. You need to file a complaint about this. It is illegal to ignore your DV to demand money.
did you sent the DV by CMRRR? if not send a 2nd