Access to Old Debt Information for State Bar Application

[DanielPlainview]

Hello,

I am going through the exciting but sometimes unpleasant process of getting admitted to the bar and they want a bunch of information about debts.  The state I'm in not only wants information about unpaid debt but any situation where you were over 90 days late. 

I am proud to say I now have excellent credit.   However years ago, 10 to be precise, I got into credit card debt trouble.  Once I got a good paying job, I paid the biggest debts off in settlements and then let the small ones roll off my credit report.   The last one disappeared from my report in 2011. 

I remember a lot of information about who I owed money in those days but I cannot for the life of me remember specifics about how each account was handled and how much I owed.  They also ask about the current status of the debts.  That might be a little tricky because by now the ones I never paid have probably been shuffled around to every junk debt collector on the planet.  The application wants all this information. 

My question is whether the credit bureaus can supply you with any of this information in the form of old credit reports or otherwise.  I'm guessing the answer is no but thought I'd ask here to be sure.

Also any other advice on how to get this stuff would really help a lot.  It's very important to disclose everything on these applications and I'm worried my recollection of those days might not be complete, especially since I was mostly concerned with chasing girls and drinking beer back then

Thanks a bunch!

[Shogun]

Not sure how that works.  If it's been purged, it's most likely gone.  I don't know if you can get that information.  I know there's a process where if you apply for over $150K they can pull a more in depth report.  Not sure what's on that either.  Maybe you could contact the CRA and ask if there's any way you could pull a more in depth report.  I've personally never heard of anybody wanting more than just the standard CR.

[RobertEG]

FCRA 609(a)(1) provides for the right of a consumer to request all information in their credit file at the time of the request.

Section 609(a)(1) requests must be accompanied by proof of identity and the required processing fee, which is currently $11.00.

What might remain in your file is hard to say.  Expiration of any of the normal credit report exclusion periods, such as 7 years for a monthly delinquency, does not delete that information from your credit file, but rather prohibits the CRAs from including that information in credit reports they issue after the exclusion date, so they should remain in the file.   However, if an account has been closed for approx 10 years, the CRAs may have deleted the account from their files.

Send in the section 609(a)(1) request.

[DanielPlainview]

Ahhh, that is good to know.  I will send that request in ASAP.  Thank you both for the help!