I had a Target card about 7-8 years age. I never paid the balance on it. It as report to the credit file and after 7 years it was deleted. However, this company is call me demanding that I pay now!! What should I do? I thought after 7 year the file is remove for our credit, so why should I pay them?
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Here is a method I used once to get rid of a legitimate debt that I owed. You may be ablet to adapt this and use it for yourself. \n\nI owed a $485 bill to AT&T that I refused to pay until they took down a cell phone tower that had been illegally erected right next to someone's back yard. Of course they ignored me, so I ignored them right back and things went round and round for a few years like that. finally the debt was sold to a collection agency and then to another one and finally to one in Florida. Up to this point none of them had reported it to any of the credit bureaus. Suddenly one day, there it was! A festering puss-filled sore right in the middle of my credit report! I immediately wrote a letter to the collection agency saying that the debt was not mine, that this was an old debt (by now it was over five years) that was being shopped around until they could stick it on somebody. I told them this was very damaging to my credit, that I had no other late payments, and I demanded they remove it immediately. Also, I said, at the time this debt was incurred there had been two other people living in the same county as me with exactly the same name as me, and it must have belonged to one of them. Again I demanded that they remove this thing from my credit report. About two weeks later I got a very apologetic letter from them saying how sorry they were for the mistake and yes it would be removed from my credit report immediately. It was and I never heard from anyone about this again.\n\n"Hell no," said Tom. "I'm not paying this. You can take this bill and shove it!"
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You don't need to run out and buy a bunch of books or pay anyone.  All the info you need is in the links below.\n\nIt's not going to be easy.  Tax liens are public records, and until the creditor files to get it removed, it will say on the state records.  I believe they will stay on your credit report for 7 years also because of that.\n\nThe credit card can be challenged by sending the creditor a "demand to validate" letter.  Make them prove you have a valid, legal obligation to pay this debt, ie a contract or purchases you signed for.  Depending on what your state law says, if you are not a co-signer (you said you were an authorized user) you may not be liable.
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Credit reports are reported for 7 years, beginning on the day of default.  They can not be restarted, but many collection agencies will try.  They simply change the date on the report.  Many consumers don't even realize it.  \n\nGotta keep your records.
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1. Making payments doesn't always raise your score.  If you pay it religiously it might go up but not much...it would have to be awhile.  Like a Credit Card, it should come off after 7 years.\n2.  Orchard Bank is a good one. I am using that one to repair my credit and they aren't outrageous at all.  Have had them over 2 years and they took off the annual fee for me because I never was late making a payment.  Repairing your credit score won't happen over night...takes alot of effort and patience!
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<sigh>\n\nOK, William, I thought you would be a differant form of creditor....but you are at least honest.  Just need some more education.\n\nWinelover, you are obviously a collector, peddeling the same like of BS as all the rest!\n\nLets clear up the lies.  Debts can NOT be reported on your credit report for more then 7 years, beginning on the date of the delinquency.  Please refer to the Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 804.\n\nCreditors can continue to collect on a debt that is older then the statute of limitations.  They just have no legal way of collecting.  Depending on the state, that runs from 4-10 years.  Once that day is passed, they can NOT sue you in court or legally try to collect.  If the debt is real old, you can simply contact the credit bureau and demand that it be removed due to the SOL running out.  It will probably require a letter to the creditor also.  Either way, debts older then 10 years can easily be ignored!\n\nSo when you folks tell people that depts never go away, you are simply uneducated or lying?  Which is it?\n\nThe only time they can continue to come after you is if they have taken you to court, and won a judgement.  \n\nThat said, lets answer your question.  William is correct.  Older debts do not hurt your score as bad as recent debts.  Don't get me wrong...negative reports still hurt!  \n\nIf you have any bills collection interest, pay them first (high interest rates first).  Then just try and work your way through.\n\nBefore you pay, first contact the creditors and try to negotiate a lower balance if possible.  Just explain what happened and they may work with you.  \n\nMost importing...you are trying to cean up your credit report.  It does you absolutely no good to pay these bills if the creditor does not remove any negative information from your report.  And you will find that once they have your money, they will not be very cooperative in helping you.  Once paid, you no longer have any leverage to work with.\n\nGet IN WRITING an agreement that once the bill is paid, they will remove all negative information from your records.\n\nUse the sample letters below to help you.\n\nWhen you negotiate, DO NOT offer to pay anything.  One slick trick collectors are using is to ask for a "good faith" payment.  If you do that, you start the statute of limitations clock, and your debt added several years to it's age.  The way the game is played...you are NOT denying you owe the debt, but you are NOT offering to pay it either, until an agreement is reached.
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They usually "try" to collect forever. \n\nIs it with a collection agency or still with the original creditor? If it is still with the original creditor, it either hasn't been very long since he defaulted, or it is with Cap One (just a couple of guesses there) \n\nYou need to find the statute of limitations in your state.\nYou also need to find when the date of first delinquency was on that card. \n\nIf he has had that card for 8 or 9 years, but only defaulted on it 2 years ago, he is probably still within the statute of limitations.\n\nIf he defaulted on the card 8 or 9 years ago, he is probably out of the statute of limitations, but you need to look it up to be sure.\n\nIf he defaulted that long ago and it is still on his credit reports, I would suggest sending the collection agency a debt validation letter. Send it certified return receipt mail. After receiving the green card back, send a dispute to the credit bureaus claiming - obsolete, please delete. (since the reporting period on a credit card is 7 years from date of first delinquency)\n\nThen, if you are "positive" he is out of the statute of limitations, after it has been 30+5 days since the collection agency had received the debt validation letter, whether they respond or not, send a SOL letter.\n\nI would suggest going to the site I've linked, you can find the resources for your letters and looking up the statute of limitations in your state.
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Lets get a few things straight, and ignore the advice of these   bill collectors....\n\n1)  Credit reporting agencies report what creditors tell them to report.\n\n2)  You can not get negative information removed from your credit report if it's "fair and accurate".\n\n3)  There is no law forcing creditors to post anything!  There is no law preventing them from editing or removing any entry that they posted.\n\nTherefore, if you pay a bill off, there is nothing preventing a creditor removing negative entries from your report, and/or posting the entry to say "paid as agreed".  \n\nNote that just placing "paid" on your account does NOT remove negative history such as delinquincy or late payments.  \n\nThis said, what you are trying to do is fix your credit report by paying the debt.  Why would you want to pay your debt and still have bad credit?   The nonsense these guys are saying about a paid off delinquincy looks better then an unpaid one is wrong and stupid!  Would you rather get kicked in the nuts or kicked in the butt!  Neither!\n\nSo what you need to do is negotiate a settlement with your creditors.  In exchange for paying off the bill, they must remove all negative entries from your history.  Make them agree to this IN WRITING before you pay them a dime.  \n\nThey are simply lying if they tell you they can't do it, or it's against the law.  I am still waiting for one of the collectors who respond here to show me any evidence or law to disprove me.  \n\nAnd yes, they will do it, I've helped several people get their credit cleaned up this way.  If the creditor wants their money, they will work with you on it.
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Before doing any credit repair, opt out first.\n \nYou should send a debt validation letter to the collection agency. \nTheir response shoud totally validate the debt. If you feel that their respones is correct and you want to pay it - send a pay for delete letter. Request that they remove the account from your reports upon payment, that they will not continue to collect the debt, that they will not sell the debt or the remainder of the debt if you have an agreement with them to only pay them a percentage of the amount.\n\nIn that letter you should request to pay a percentage of the debt. Collection agency's pay roughly around .50 cents on the dollar for those accounts. Junk debt buyers pay only pennies on the dollar or even less.\n\nYou should also do some research and find out your statute of limitations for the debt in your state. If it is past the statute of limitations, you are not legally required to pay the debt. Paying it at that stage would be your decision.\n\nIf it is past SOL and you do not pay it, they can only legally report the account for the original 7 years. They cannot re-age the account.\n\nLearn your rights.\n\nI would suggest popping in to the site that I am linking and do some reading.
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That’s great that you atempted to repair your credit yourself before you decided to pay someone. \n\nNow that you know how aggravating the credit bureaus are to deal with, you need to find a legitimate company. Let me tell you; they are far and few between. I tried to repair my credit myself and gave up. Then I hired a company in California called a “Fresh Start” they charged me $695 and stole my money. I never heard back from them. It turns out it was a complete scam. \n\nStill very serious and skeptical about repairing my credit, the 2nd time around, I researched quite a few different companies. I finally decided on a company in Florida called Credit Network. They are a smaller company and they really know what they are doing. They also didn’t charge anything upfront except for a small setup fee, after that they charge $49 mo, after the work is performed for the previous month. When I started I had 73 negative items between all 3 bureaus! That was about 8 months ago, and they have deleted all but 17 bad items. They were realistic when they said it could take over a year, buts that’s fine with me, because they followed through on what they said.     \n\nSomething very important….. The bad debts that you say you owe; you need to pay them off. I don’t care if you settle them or pay them in full, eventually you need to pay them off because if you don’t, there is a very good possibility they will pop back up on your credit after you delete them. I was told that debts get sold and resold, even after the statute of limitations. So if you are as serious as you sound about repairing your credit, you have to pay them off!! \n\nOh yeah, here is the link to them http://www.expert-credit-advice.com/credit_repair_service.htm
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If you paid with a credit or debit card I would call the institution that supplies that card.  However, since it has been over a year they may not be able to dispute the charges.  You may need to speak to an attorney if the product was worth the value!
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Your score will dip no matter what you do. For how long depends on how you deal with cleaning up you credit.\n\nIf you pay the accounts without using a pay for delete agreement, they will just notate your reports as paid collections. Which will be just as bad as having the collection on your reports.\n\nIf you use a pay for delete agreement, when they delete the account your score will dip from losing the history of the account. But you scores will probably rebound sooner than having a paid collection. \n\nIf you are dealing with collection agency's, you should send a debt validation first. When they properly validate the debt (and you are still in SOL) send them a pay for delete letter. \n\nInclude in that letter that they will not only delete the tradeline they have placed on your reports, but they will also not sell the debt, sell the remainder of the debt (if you request to only pay a percentage of it - which you should request) and will not continue to collect the debt. (collection agency's have been known to do all of those - even when the debt is paid.) \n\nIf the debt is out of the statute of limitations (SOL) for your state, you have the right to "not pay" it. After you send the debt validation letter and you know it is out of SOL, you have the right to send them a SOL letter. And, if they are reporting incorrectly on your reports (which they probably are) you have the right to dispute the account with the credit bureaus. Requesting that the accounts are either corrected, or if not, deleted.\n\nI would also suggest trying to get a secured card or two. If you do that now, you would have a years history on it/them which will help you when you want to get that loan.  \n\nOnly use the cards occasionally for small amounts, a tank of gas etc. and pay in full when you get the statement. Then, keep the cards in your sock drawer for about 6 months before you use them for another small amount.\n\nYou might check out Orchard Bank, HSBC or Bank of America for secured cards.\n\nYou might also want to check out the link I have provided. Learn how to deal with your baddies and how to up your scores.
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Who called the collection agency?  If it was the credit card company then I would first try and work with the credit card company and get them to call off the collection agency.  If not then pay the collection agency the money.
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The seven years is almost up, don't waste the money.  It's not a subpoena, just a shakedown letter.  It may not actually get removed from her credit report after seven years, but it shouldn't be taken into account by new creditors.  It was charged off, so they're out the money and she's out her credit rating.
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AMEX did the same thing to me years ago. They call the shots. I cant tell you if you should pay it but I can tell you it will haunt you longer than the 7 years because it will continue to be "sold" and thus will stay on forever.
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Dealing with old debt \nBy Lucy Lazarony • Bankrate.com \nDon't let an old debt come back to haunt you. \n\n\nSome debt collectors are unearthing old debts, debts that are five to 10 years old or more, in the hope of squeezing some fresh money out of unsuspecting consumers.\n\n"I had one guy who got a call on a debt 14 years later," says Gerri Detweiler, author of "The Ultimate Credit Handbook."\n\nA collection call on an old debt can be tricky to handle, and if you handle it wrong it could lead to big trouble down the road. \n\nFirst off, it's important to realize that an old unpaid debt can't hurt you nearly as much as a new unpaid debt. \n\n- advertisement - \n \n \nAn unpaid credit account will mar your credit report for seven years. But once your debt passes the seven-year mark, you're in the clear. \n\nWith newer debts, debt collectors may call and threaten to sue you day in and day out. With an older debt, any debt collector that threatens to take you to court is breaking the law.\n\nThat's quite a difference and it all hinges on whether the debt a collector is haranguing you about is beyond the statute of limitations for delinquent debt in your state.\n\nOnce a debt is older than the statute of limitations for debt in your state, a debt collector no longer has the right to sue you for payment. You may still have a moral obligation to pay back the debt, but you can't be sued over it.\n\n"They can still ask you to pay, but they can't threaten to sue. If they do, it's a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act," says John Ventura, a consumer attorney in Brownsville, Texas, and author of the e-book Stop Debt Collectors Cold.\n\nLet's say you still owe some money on an old credit card account left over from your college days, 10 years earlier. And let's say the statute of limitations for credit card accounts in your state is five years. \n\nA debt collector may call you and ask you for payment for this forgotten account, but he can't take you to court or threaten to sue you over it. If he does, he's violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. \n\nAnd since the debt is more than 7 years old, it's no longer listed on your credit report.\n\nWatch your step\n\nEven though a debt collector won't ever admit it, you're the one with the advantage here. But one little misstep could change all that.\n\nIn some states, making a partial payment to a debt collector or even acknowledging that you owe the money is enough to make an old debt new again.\n\nIf this happens, the five-year statute of limitations on your debt starts all over again. A debt collector has five more years in which to sue you for payment. And a non-payment on your new-again debt could be reported on your credit report. Then the advantage transfers to debt collectors.\n\nThe best way to handle a collection call for an old debt is to say as little as possible. Don't agree to pay. Don't acknowledge the debt. \n\nIn her book, "Money Troubles: Legal Strategies to Cope With Your Debts," attorney Robin Leonard offers the following advice: \n\n"You should never talk to the collection agency about it at all, even if they call at a permitted hour of the day. Just hang up the phone or put the receiver down and walk away."\n\nThe best way to respond to a collection notice on an old debt is in writing.\n\nUnder the law, a debt collector must send you a written notice telling you the amount of money you owe and the name of the creditor. If within 30 days of receiving this collection notice you write a letter back disputing the debt, a debt collector may not contact you.\n\nIt's a good idea to send this letter via certified mail so you'll have proof that the debt collector received it. Under the law, a collector may only renew collection activities if proof of the debt, such as a copy of a bill, is sent to you. \n\n"Definitely seek a
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Paying in full would be best...\n\nBut which ever way you decide..remember this.\n\nYou are trying to clean your credit history.  The only way you can get this negative item removed is for the creditor to do it.  \n\nHaving him put "paid" on your account does NOT remove negative information about delinquency or late payments.  It must show "paid in full, as agreed" or better yet have it removed entirely.\n\nBut once the creditor has your money, it's going to be very difficult to get him to cooperate with you in cleaning your credit.  Once he has your money you have lost all leverage to negotiate.\n\nTherefore, when you call to negotiate a payment plan, demand IN WRITING that they remove the negative information from your report before you pay them a dime!\n\nOtherwise, you will end up with bad credit, plus you will be broke.
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If you remember the name of the Company that you owed the money to, you could ask them to write a letter to the 3 reporting agenceies, make 3 copies, to remove the negative from your history. Otherwise it should have been removed after 7 full years, though since Republicans have changed the bankruptcy laws it's entirely possible they may have thrown in a ryder that doesn't allow the 7 year removal anymore. \n\nOr you could get a fresh free credit report if you are really sure about the exact 7 yr date.If you don't know the name of the Company, then follow the instructions in the following article, reading down to 'If Changes Aren't Made'