I Need advice, bankruptcy or consoladate

What is the name of your state? California
I fell into debt in 1997/1998 about 20,000 and haven’t done anything about it since. It was more but school loans have garnished my tax returns and they have since, been paid off. I didn’t have the $ to pay at the time and wasn't sure about bankruptcy so I haven’t done anything. I would like to eliminate this debt but not sure which way to go consolidation or bankruptcy, especially since there has been so much time that has elapsed. I managed to save about 9,000 to put towards repayment but would like to know the pros and cons on either decision. My debt mainly consists of credit card dept, car loan, mobile home loan, and various dep store cards. If I pay the total amount, I may be able to pay it off in about 2 1/2 - 3 years, I would like to eventually get a house in the next couple of years and I'm trying to clean up my credit. Any help or recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

[Ladynred]

To be blunt, if the last time you paid any creditors was more than 4 years ago, then you cannot now be sued for collection on those debts - the statute of limitiations (SOL) has expired (4 yrs in CA).

Paying old charge-offs won't help your credit in the least UNLESS you also negotiate how its reported on your credit report. You want to go for full deletion of any collection trade-lines, but at the very least you want it to show as 'paid'. Even a notation of 'settled' is BAD NEWS for your credit. See... paying old out of statute debt is like throwing your money down a rat hole. IF you can negotiate positive entries or full deletion, then you can go for the warm-fuzzy of paying off your old debts - but they cannot sue you for any of them. I believe in CA, they cannot even attempt to collect on an out of staute debt. CA has some very nice consumer protection laws.

IF you ARE past the SOL on all debts, filing bankruptcy is pointless. You have an absolute defense if someone tries a lawsuit.

If you'd like more information on the credit repair part, head over to [url]www.creditboards.com[/url] and start reading, there's tons of info there. You can also try [url]www.creditinfocenter.com[/url] for settlement tactics and negotiation as well as validation.

I'd stay away from consolidations, debt management, etc. - they're 99% bad news.