@Mamaoftwo wrote:Okay, so quick question. I have a friend that I am trying to help with their credit. For months they have talked about old debts and that their score is sub par, well I finally convinced them to let me pull their report. I'm a little jealous, man had only one account reporting which was a cc for 2500 in perfect payments and all scores from 700-750 (all fico). Now the quetion is, he's had people calling him about debts he owed, and he was sure he had debts that he owed for old credit cards. He believes the last card payment while the card was active was 9 years ago. And no one is reporting to his accounts, not even collections. Does he still need to pay those so that it doesn't come back on his report? He has no problem paying it, but if the debt in invalid he would rather use the money for a downpayment on a house. Thank you for any information you can give.
Well, the debt is a debt, and it will never go away. Now, after 7.5 years of the account becoming deliquent, they are no longer allowed to report to the credit reporting agencies per FCRA Exclusionary period (with some specific exceptions such as applying for a loan of greater than $150K and a job that pays more than $70k/year - I think).
But again, that doesn't mean that he doesn't owe the money. From the sounds of it, it is his debt - albeit an OLD debt. As such, it is a valid debt, despite the fact that he has not paid it for the past 9 years and it is past the exclusionary period for his credit report.
As for his credit profile, it looks like it was dropped from his reports, and if it has truly been more than 7.5 years since the account first became delinquent and never brought back to current, it will never come back again.
Hope that answers your question. A
@Dianamarie1013 wrote:
It does..thank you. He doesnt mind paying it in reality. He actually feels guilty. Im just wondering if he does pay it also will it be able to come back restarting it or will it continue to stay off? Is it safe to settle or pif?
I may be a bit biased here because I am a firm believer that if you owe the debt, it should be paid in full - whatever you owed on it. However, I realize that this feeling is not shared by everyone; not to say which is better.
With that said, regardless of whether you pay in full or settle, it should not come back on your report any more if it has been more than 7 years and 180 days since the account first became delinquent. I say should not because stranger things have happened, in which case you would have to ask them to remove it, but legally there would be no basis for that to re-appear.
Good luck to you, and your friend!
