Best way to deal with lawyer collecting?

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody!

My wife has a certified letter coming in the mail on Saturday. I have a sneaking suspicion it is from a law firm (Schiff in New England) requesting payment of an old Verizon cell phone bill.

The DOFD for bill is December 2000 (as shown on TU). It was just charged off in November 2007 which is why I believe this is happening now. She thinks she opened the account in NJ when she lived there which has a 6 year SOL and she currently lives in RI which has a 10 year. I guess the first question is which SOL should be used?

The second question, if it is RI then she is within the SOL and wants to pay, how will this affect her credit. Since the DOFD is 7 years then this should be falling off her report any second. Will paying this bill keep this negative on her report. And does it makes sense to DV and then PFD even if it is a lawyer?

She just wants to do what is right without hurting her credit even further. This is her last baddie on TU and we really want it gone! I really appreciate any guidance you have to offer. Hopefully when we get this certified letter on Saturday we can start to figure things out!

[Anonymous]

Bump!

[Anonymous]

Before we get to your questions ...

How did you know at least several days in advance that she would be getting a certified letter precisely on Saturday?

[Anonymous]

Per code they can sue in either the state opened or the state that you reside in (usually the county level).  So yes, RI SOL could be a factor in their favor even with the Dec 2000 DOFD/DOLA.

AS to what to do - you need to receive the letter from the attorney before we can say 'what next' -- who is reporting on her credit a CA or an OC for the item you mentioned?  What account is this attorney handling - is it the one on her credit - or something else?

[Anonymous]

Because the letter came during the day when we were both at work and they left the little card. Since we both work during post office hours she filled it out asking for it to be redelivered on Saturday when somebody will be home to sign for it. The sender is "Schiff" which is a law firm in New England that specializes in collections. This is the last unpaid debt that she has left. Hence our suspicious.

Even if the letter is not in regards to that, she pulled TU and found this problem so she is looking at fixing it in any way possible in order to pay her debt.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Lady_Scarlet. I guess the SOL was my first question. I'm sure I'll be back after we get the letter tomorrow!