ladynred/ help!!!!

What is the name of your state?

Kentucky, then arizona

My earlier thread can be found, you helped me and told me not to hold my breath, not to call. I called. My fiance is getting ready to get a house, which I will pay, but not put in my name quite yet. He freaked out on the calls and demanded I clear this up.

They said they were not a collection agency, but the step right before litigation. They said they recorded the call for the courts, and that I could settle or go to court, paying court costs, attorney fees, etc. They would not send me anything by mail, but insisted I give them a fax number to send me the amount owed, but not my choices, or else it would go to court. They also called my neighbor 2 doors down and left a message on his answering machine. I live in a fourplex, his name, number, etc has absolutely no connection to me what so ever. What do I do?? Are they going to sue me? It's for Discover Credit card, which I haven't paid since Jan, 1997. They claim it's Jan 98, which I had mentioned to you that a company was trying to "reage" my debt, but not under Discover, under a different name. HEEEEELLLLPP!

I'm sorry this is not ladynred but even if they reaged your account SOL in Kentucky is 5 years, its to late for them to sue you anyways. Hope that helps.

[Ladynred]

Sorry.. was sick on Wed and spent the last 4 days getting moved.

A 'step before litigation' ?? Horsehockey, they're collecting on a debt that makes them debt collectors, even if they were lawyers, they're still bound by the FDCPA !! Even if they did tape whatever you said on a call, its probably inadmissable in court anyway.. another BS bluff !

Calling your neighbors when they HAVE your location info is yet another violation of the FDCPA and they are NOT allowed to do so ! Discussing ANYTHING about your debt or even saying they are debt collectors is a violation !

As Bones noted, and as did I, the SOL for BOTH states, KY and AZ has EXPIRED. Even if it was Jan 98, the SOL expired in KY in Jan 2003 and in Jan 2001 in AZ !!

If they are trying to re-age the debt, that means they're trying to change the DOLA. If you have proof of the ORIGINAL DOLA, you need to immediately dispute this with the credit bureaus where its reported. Its a huge violation of the FCRA and violating that Act comes with some very hefty violation fines.. $1000 PER VIOLATION.

Send them the Cease and Desist letter I believe I sent you the link to as the debt is time-barred ! IF they are stupid enough to try to sue you, and Discover *might*, then you have a perfectly valid affirmative defense, the expired SOL, to have the case thrown out of court. Find your proof of that last payment in 97, whatever you have, and keep it at hand in case they do try to sue.

Ignore their calls, don't talk to them. Explain to your sig-o that they cannot legally sue you over this old debt and you can beat them easily if they try to. You do NOT have to 'clear this up'.

They left a message on my answering machine saying they would send whatever it is in writing. Still waiting....

In the meantime, I pulled a couple of old credit reports (I pull them periodically) to see what it said. It has 2 last date of activity. One in 2-97 (I know this is the date I started becoming late), and one for 6-98, and it says on the report; Status, chargeoff bad debt, sold to another company.

Now am I still out of the clear? I promise this will be the last question. Thank you sooooo much for your help. We're buying a house and I don't want any negative financial surprises.

[Ladynred]

The SOL period starts when you first went delinquent and never again got the account current. 180 days after that, they are required by the FDIC to charge it off as a bad debt. So, if you first went late in 2/97 and never caught it up after that, then charge-off should have been about 7/97, so the SOL is still over. The 6/98 may have been when they sold it after charge-off. Before that time, it may have only been assigned to collection agencies. Use the 2/97 date for the SOL and tell them to go pound sand. If you have any bank records or cancelled checks from that account, dig 'em up just in case you need the proof at hand. You could also contact the bank you were using at that time and get copies, I think they're supposed to keep account records for 7 years.

What is it they're going to send in writing ???