Debt settlement offer, CA and CRA issues

[kbeefy]

What is the name of your state? Alaska

Please excuse any omitions or irrelavancies I make, rather new to this and this forum.

OK, like many others around here I was stupid in the past and am now trying to make ammends for it, procrastination and ignorance have done nothing to help me... maybe somone here can.
Got a store credit card from CompUSA in 1-98 with the intentions of paying the debt before the '6 month same as cash' period ended. Of course this didn't happen, made payments for a while then moved and lost track of the account, ignored it, or just had better things to do with my money. In any case, it was turned over to collections. Not exactly sure but according to my credit report (theres 4 entries reguarding this single debt) it was charged off and/or picked up by collections between 6-00 an 2-01. In 2000 sometime I sent a check to settle the account, however it was returned unopened and apparently the collection agency moved or went out of buisness. At this time I continued ignoring the fact that I had a debt and went without any contact from the CA for approx. 1 year. Then another CA started sending invoices, followed by a settlement offer then another CA with it's invoices/statements, which continued for about 1-2 years.

Then I recieved an interested settlement offer, it had the normal mumbo-jumbo and 'we are prepared to offer you a settlement of $0, for a total savings of $2376' or whatever the number they came up with. I had to read this a few times to make sure I understood it correctly... and proceeded to write a polite acceptance letter and mail them a check for the requested amount of $0. I didn't hear back from them about anything and assumed it was dealt with, obviously their mistake, but I wasn't going to draw any more attention to myself. If they screwed up and wanted to forget the matter it was fine with me. Of course, about a year later I start hearing from them again (different CA), but when I brought up the issue of the settlement they asked me to provide some sort of letter saying the debt was paid, and the other CA obviously hadn't sent me anything after their fubar.

Sorry for the drawn out explaination but I felt it would be necessary to convey the full story. I guess what I'm looking for is whether or not this settlement offer (I kept copies and mailed w/ confirmation)means anything and can it help me, and what I should do about the multiple entries on my credit report reguarding this issue? For the latter I'm guessing dispute it with the CRA...


Thanks and any help is appreciated!

kbeefy

 

[Ladynred]

SOL in Alaska is 4 years. That means if the last time you paid on the account to CompUSA was MORE than 4 years ago, then they can no longer sue you to collect the debt. If they try it, then you have an absolute defense that the debt is now time-barred by the statute of limitations.

This also means you don't have to pay them anything. If the SOL has run out, then you need only send the collection agency a cease and desist letter telling them to never contact you again as the debt is time-barred.

 

[kbeefy]

hey lady...

I did some looking and I found conflicting info reguarding the SOL in alaska, stating 3-6 years. Also, I'm not worrying about being sued here, in fact I feel they're doing a very half-a$$ed job of pursuing the debt, I assume they have bigger fish to fry or consider me a low probability of return. (allied interstate is currently handling the account).
My primary concern is my credit rating, I'm looking to get these dilenquent accounts off of my report.

Thanks for the input!