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The debt will never expire, you will always owe the debt. What the person was referring to is called a Statute of Limitation, meaning the time period in which the creditor has to take legal action against you. If the creditor fails to take you to court and sue you within the allowed (by your state) time period, then they can no longer legally by federal law sue you. If you are ever sued once the statute is up, then make sure and show up for court, otherwise they will get a default judgment against you. Here is a link to the statutes, so you may check your state: www ... Federal law prevents debt collectors from suing you when the statute of limitations has passed on a debt. However, the law doesn't prevent collectors from continuing to contact you to collect the debt. Use this letter to let collectors know the statute of limitations has passed and you no longer wish to be contacted regarding the debt. credit ...

by Dixie Darlin'

5 months ago

Asker's Rating: 

No...she has been somewhat misinformed. The credit card debt itself does not expire. What does expire is the Statute of Limitations under which the owner of the debt can legally receive a court judgment against the borrower. This Statute varies between states, with some being 3 years and some as long as 7 or 8. This does not mean that a creditor can't try to sue, it means that the borrower must show up in court and argue that the SOL has expired. The letter she is referring to can be written at any time - once you start receiving calls about a past due debt, you can formally request that the lender/collector cease all attempts to contact you. This letter does not have to be composed by a lawyer. It should be mailed to the lender/collector in a signature required/return receipt requested envelope (to prove that the collector got it). The downside to this is if the collections are in an early stage, the collection agency may just skip the collection efforts and go straight to court. For more information on your rights as a borrower, there is a nice little booklet put out by the government here: www ...

by Steve D- 5 months ago

Yes and NO. You need to check the Statue of Limitations for your state. NY for example is 6 years. After 6 years they cant sue you. After 7 years it should fall off your credit. However they will have the right to keep trying to collect. If you send a cease and desist letter before the SOL is up then you most likely get sued if the debt is worth collecting. If you need more help my email is gqcredit@gmail.com. Hope this helps.

by GQcredit.com- 5 months ago

Partial truth. If the collector can not get ahold of you for 7 consecutive years or verify that the phone number or address they have on file is in fact you, then they must dissolve the debt. That means the phone cannot be in your name or answered by you, your Voicemail must say a phone number and not a name, etc. The letter she is referring to is called a Cease and Desist Letter and you can write that yourself using a template online. No need for an attorney. It just stops all communication between the collector and you (saves your the stress of harassing phone calls), although collectors tend to break the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act often. Your best bet for unsecured debt is to find a program to help you get out of debt and stick with it.

by FutureMsLace- 5 months ago

sorry debt's don't have sol on them and not paying them will screw up your credit and further the creditor can post a charge off to your credit and can post indefinitely ,credit reports can usually fall off in 4 to 7 yrs but the creditor can re post every 4 yrs,(the same debt) at their discretion

by Twister- 5 months ago

Unsecured debt that is not paid monthly, eventually gets "charged-off" by the lender. When a debt is charged off, it is almost always sent to an internal collections department or sold to a collection agency, hence the term collection account. The collections agency will then pursue payment of the account more aggressively. Your credit report will show the original account with the written off or charged off status and a comment that the account was sold or transferred to collections. A new collection account for the debt will then appear indicating from whom the debt was purchased or transferred. Because a collection account is treated as a continuation of the original debt, it will be deleted at the same time as the original account. The original account and subsequent collection accounts will be deleted seven years from the original delinquency date. (The original delinquency date is the date of the first missed payment after which the account was never again current.) The FACT Act also requires collection agencies to retain and report the original delinquency date. This helps ensure the debt is deleted from your credit history at the right time. As far as credit scores are concerned, a collection account is as negative as it gets, short of bankruptcy. The status of the collection account, whether it’s unpaid, paid or settled, will have little importance. What’s important initially is that you didn’t pay the original account as agreed. That will have a very serious effect on your ability to get credit. Neither a collection agency nor the original creditor can legally put the debt back on your credit report after the seven year period ends, nor can they start the seven year period over again. Just because a collection account is deleted from your credit history doesn’t mean they have to stop trying to collect the debt, although many states have laws governing how long they can continue their collection efforts. Those time frames vary depending on the state law. Every day, consumers pay off collection accounts and charge-offs which they do not have to pay off because the Statute of Limitations has already expired for the open account. Consumers pay off these accounts because the accounts still appear on their credit reports. This information can be a powerful weapon in unburdening yourself of old debts, as creditors have a limited time in which to sue you. Remember: the Statute of Limitations begins to run from the day the debt - or payment on an open-ended account - was due. Also, this has nothing to do with how long an negative credit item can remain on your credit report. The Statute of Limitations does not cause your debt to go away after it expires. If the creditor files suit, the consumer has an absolute defense. The consumer must offer the new evidence to avoid a judgment. The evidence will consist of papers the consumer files to support his claim. If the creditor sues you, and you do not prove to the court that the Statute of Limitations expired, you will have a lost lawsuit and a judgment against you. The statute of limitations (SOL) is calculated by: 1. Take the date you last made a payment and add 6 months to this date. 2. Add the number of years of the statute of limitations in your state. Depending on what state you live in, if you make a partial payment, you could be postponing the Statute of Limitations' taking effect on your collection account or charge-off. A collector might call you one day and say you waived your rights when you made a deal with the collection agency. Do not take anything a collector tells you for granted. Make them prove it to you, in or out of court. For about half the population, the Statute of Limitations started ticking the day they made the last payment for their account. Even though a debt is an absolute promise to pay, if the Statute of limitations expiring is in force and the creditor tries to force you to pay the debt, you have the right not to fulfill the promise (debt). “Time-barred” debts are debts so old they are beyond the point at which a creditor or debt collector may sue you to collect. State law varies as to when a creditor or debt collector may no longer sue to collect: in most states, the statute of limitations period on debts is between 3 and 10 years; in some states, the period is longer. Check with your State Attorney General’s Office at www.naag.org to determine when a debt is considered time-barred in your state. Most courts that have addressed the issue have ruled that the FDCPA does not prohibit debt collectors from trying to collect time-barred debts, as long as they do not sue or threaten to sue you for the debt. If a debt collector sues you to collect a time-barred debt, you can have the suit dismissed by letting the court or judge know the debt is, indeed, time-barred. Whether a time-barred debt — or any debt for that matter — can appear on your credit report depends on how long

by CreditTrauma- 5 months ago