Posted by John on February 11, 1999 at 07:52:13:
In Reply to: Charge off on credit report. posted by Rich F. on February 08, 1999 at 14:52:09:
If the charge is almost seven years old then don't do anything! Wait until it reaches the 7 year old date. Then go down to the credit bureau and make sure it has been removed. Charge offs must be remove from your credit report after 7 years. The creditors will sometimes try and trick you into saying they will just re-new the collection and put it back on for another 7 years. That is just a scam to trick you into paying. Once the debt reaches 7 years then they can't do anything. The only way they can do anything is by taking you to court to get a judgement against you. A judgement can stay on your credit for up to 10 years. But unless they serve you with papers to go to court you don't have anything to worry about. Plus it is highly unlikely they will try to go to court now since the statue of limitations has probably ran out. Once the statue of limitations has expired they no longer have any legal standing to make you pay the debt. It can only sit on your credit file until the 7 years has expired. The collection agency will just hope you run into a situation like your in now to try to get something out of you. If you don't want to wait a little longer you can try to get them to accept a $100 if they will send you a written letter stating that the $100 will pay the account in full and they will DELETE this from your credit file within 10 tens from receiving payment. Anything less then tell them to stuff it. It will fall off your credit file anyway. I'm surprised your loan broker or banker is making a deal out of this since it will come off anyway in a few months. Maybe you should get a new broker or bank. I got a woman approved that had over $40k in charge offs from 3 accounts. Everything else was excellent credit ratings except those 3 accounts. I got her approved for a 95% LTV on refinancing a contract for deed. I'd say the banker or loan broker your dealing with is an idiot unless the only issue at this point is how this will affect your interest rate which it probably would.
If this were my debt going on 7 years I would just wait it out at this point. The law requires the credit bureaus to remove this after 7 years. Just go down and check your credit file once it reaches the 7 year date and make sure it has been deleted. If it hasn't point it out to the credit bureau and then should take it right off for you.