Can I Fight This?

[gotzoom]

Hello all,

I have started receiving colection letters for 2 different credit cards I had when I was under the age of 18. I am an honest person and I know that I would not have lied about my age on the applications. I was working at that time and in high school, but being young and dumb I neber paid the bills. I am now over 30 and see these just started being reported on my credit report. The limits were $300 each, but the report shows around $1200 owing for each. I assume it's the interest building up for over the past 15 years. Can and should I fight this or should I pay up?
Thanks in advance

[Some Random Guy]

credit card debts over 7 1/2 years old should not be showing up on your credit reports.

If you know what state you live in, you can find out the statute of limitations for old CC debts, but at 15 years since last activity, you have no doubt gone beyond the SOL.

Sent them a cease and desist letter telling them to not contact you anymore. This will not stop them from suiing you over the debt, but you can use the SOL as a defense. Also contact the credit reporting agencies (where you got your credit report from) and follow their procedures to dispute the entries.

[debtcollector`]

Originally Posted by gotzoom

I have started receiving collection letters for 2 different credit cards I had. I am an honest person...

What would an honest person do?

An honest debt collection agency should not be buying old debt from pennies on the dollar (junk bonds), way past SOL and trying to collect on them.

[debtcollector`]

Originally Posted by Kanman

An honest debt collection agency should not be buying old debt from pennies on the dollar (junk bonds), way past SOL and trying to collect on them.

Debt has nothing to do with junk bonds, nimrod.

[ceara19]

Originally Posted by debtcollector`

What would an honest person do?

An honest person would probably pay the ORIGNAL amount of the debt. However, that honest person would then end up being screwed because paying the amount that they actually owe, as opposed to some ridiculously inflated amount, would then restart the SOL.

Originally Posted by debtcollector`

Debt has nothing to do with junk bonds, nimrod.

LOL... oh really? Someone needs to do some research on junk bonds then. A lot of junk bonds are defaulted or bad debt repackaged and sold on the market in portfolios below face value. The debt collector scum then feed off these bad debts, much like what is happening to the OP in this thread for pennies on the dollar, and try to collect, most of the time using means outside the law. These are you bottom feeder debt collectors...nimrod.

[gotzoom]

I have found that the SOL in my state is 6 years for all types (Oral, written etc..) Apparently one of them did not start replorting until 2004 and the original debt is from 1993. I have run my credit report once per year for the last 4 years from the same bureau and this is the first I have seen of it. Im not sure why it hasnt shown up in the past. The other debt does not show on my report and when I contacted them (the collection agency)they stated it was beyond the SOL of reporting to the credit bureau, but that it is still a collectible debt. I know it's no excuse, but again I was under the age of 18 at the time of optaining these credit cards. I will be contacting an attorney this week to se if I have any other options available. Thanks for the advice in the previous posts and for any more anyone as to offer.

[Tritium]

No person under the age of 18 shall enter into a legal binding contract without the parent or guardians written/signed approval to validate that contract. So, question is, did your parents help you with acquiring the Credit Cards? This also (I believe) makes them fully liable for the amount due. (Assuming appropriate actions were taken to inform them of this debt.)

I may be pulling straw out of a hat.. but I think I am fairly accurate. Though, I am not a professional, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.



Thanks!

[gotzoom]

Originally Posted by Tritium

No person under the age of 18 shall enter into a legal binding contract without the parent or guardians written/signed approval to validate that contract. So, question is, did your parents help you with acquiring the Credit Cards? This also (I believe) makes them fully liable for the amount due. (Assuming appropriate actions were taken to inform them of this debt.)

I may be pulling straw out of a hat.. but I think I am fairly accurate. Though, I am not a professional, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.



Thanks!

I know my parents never signed anything and I'm sure that if the companies would have contacted them, I would have heard about it way back then and it would have been dealt with at that time. Thanks for the info

[boswd]

Sounds like you have two things going for you the SOL and contracts dealing with minors which that case alone makes this a voidable contract.
The other credit card probably started up on your credit report again because someone else has bought it and it trying to revive it. SOL should still comes into play despite it
Dispute it with all three credit burueos, should be catorgory of "debt too old" or something along those lines and the fact you have acquired an attorny is very very good. You should be fine. He'll advise you on all the right moves you make. But remember what you say or do because just like that you can restart the SOL. But contracts with minors would most likely be your best defense.