How long until you feel safe?

[rckstrscott]

This is more directed towards the vets or people who have finally restablished themselves.. but I am also open to all opinions on this..

How long until you felt safe from odl debt/mistakes coming back to haunt you?

I say this because low and behold, NCO pops on my credit report. It is probably a zombie debt since I have been bill/money responsible since 2008, but most of my bad years were before that. I was pretty sure I had paid off all my past obligations, but just as anyone who once had 27 collections accounts, its quite possible I missed something.. so this isn't realy about how to handle it, what the next steps are, personal responsibilty ect. I know what I have to do with this account, I will get it taken care of asap!

The question really is: when do you feel safe after all of this credit nighmare/rebuilding has been put in the rear view?

It has been years since anything negative has hit my credit. Then this happens...

Do you feel like once you make yourself a target , you are always a target?  I will send a DV for this debt but I have no idea what it is. I have a whole filing cabinet full of reports, letters, ect ect.. no clue on this one. Will I eternally be on zombie lists? What happens if I lose these limits I worked hard for on my credit cards?

Or is the safe feeling something that goes away once you know how this whole business works? 

-scott

[Nicoantique]

Funny you mention this. I've worked so hard to get back to where I was. 495 tu to 695 in a year.

1 more c/o to go and just garden. 

Recently , since I have awakened the sleeping giant also, I had a tax lien show up Unpaid that was paid years ago.

Of course I called the state and then contended it with tu and it was removed in a month.

Makes me think I Always have to be on the lookout.

Great question.

[gdale6]

Zombies cannot come back on your CRs post 7 yrs from DOFD, if its a cc debt it can be 7.5 yrs from DOFD. Since you dont know who this is you cant figure out what the DOFD was so go ahead and DV, its most likely post your states SOL for suing. As far as feeling safe for me it was 1 day past 7.5 yr reporting period on last reporting CO. Nothing else could pop up out of the woodwork either as CAs must operate from the DOFD of the OC. I knew that if anything showed up someone was going to be opening up their checkbook to me. Good luck getting these scumbags taken care of

[Repo-ed]

I feel a bit safer with each passing day, that turns into an entire year.

That being said, I won't feel completely comfortable with my progress for at least another 7 years - since all removed items will have aged off by then, anyway.

[down_n_out]

Actually I think about this almost everyday. For me it was overwhelming medical bills for both me and my husband. When your caring for a sick person and have several health issues and hospital trips of your own the bills never end. Everyone who touches you literally has their own separate fee. At one point I think I was getting like 20 a week. 

I hate our medical system it is such a nightmare even with good insurance. OK back to my point. I feel like a target now too once everything is finally removed I will have nothing good or bad on there and I kind of wish I could live with out credit so I don't bring any attention to myself, cause I don't know when the safe point would be for us since there is always a medical debt to pay. And who knows how many I missed and when my end is in sight :-(

[RobertEG]

You can never be totally safe if you have unpaid, delinquent debt unless it is discharged.

Discharge of debt can occur by its payment, cancelletion by the owner, BK, or apparently in two states wherein their state SOL statute equates expiration of SOL with discharge of the debt.

At any time, a debt collector can contact you regarding an debt that has not been discharged.  The fact that any reporting to a CRA may have become excluded from your future credit reports only shields the fact of the debt from easy view by others via a simple pull of your credit report.

If a debt collector contacts you and asserts an unpaid, delinquent debt, then future applications you may make for credit may require its disclosure if the propeective lendor asks for disclosure of all unpaid debt.

[rckstrscott]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Zombies cannot come back on your CRs post 7 yrs from DOFD, if its a cc debt it can be 7.5 yrs from DOFD. Since you dont know who this is you cant figure out what the DOFD was so go ahead and DV, its most likely post your states SOL for suing. As far as feeling safe for me it was 1 day past 7.5 yr reporting period on last reporting CO. Nothing else could pop up out of the woodwork either as CAs must operate from the DOFD of the OC. I knew that if anything showed up someone was going to be opening up their checkbook to me. Good luck getting these scumbags taken care of

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Thanks for the advice, gdale  I am pretty well versed at the process, and will likely start on it tomorrow.  I was more looking for opinions on when you actually feel 'safe" about it... I understand from the legality side all you are mentioning, but that doesn't make me feel like its completely behind me at least yet; considering I spent 10 hours a day on this forum, piping everyone for information and rebuilding my credit essentially through this forum. This is just my 'go to' place when I feel down about my credit situation

And I agree with where Robert is going with his comments. I suppose unless I know for a FACT I don't have any outstanding debt, there is always a chance I will contniue to receive contact on past obligations. Since my money issues started in 1996 and went to 2007 roughly, there is possiblity some older accounts out there that will still continue to fester, although not on the credit reports per say. I thought I tackled them all, eager to see what this NCO thing really is.

More than likey a nicely worded letter to NCO will have this removed. I was just curious to how people felt about their own safety.

-scott

[Irisa]

Very interesting question, Scott.

I started to rebuild my credit in 2008 when I joined this forum. I did everything I could to rebuild, but then I started to lose hope so I completely ignored anything credit related until last year. I got brave enough to apply for a Freedom and Discover cards last March. I think getting approved made me feel a little safer about my credit. I came back to the forum and finally looked at my scores again. I was very surprised by the difference from years ago. I actually had good credit. 

At this point I feel pretty safe that nothing negative will pop up on my report. My only fear now is going through that again, which is why I'm constantly checking my accounts and scores. I don't ever want to get to a point of needing to rebuild again.

[Repo-ed]

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@RobertEG wrote:

You can never be totally safe if you have unpaid, delinquent debt unless it is discharged.

Discharge of debt can occur by its payment, cancelletion by the owner, BK, or apparently in two states wherein their state SOL statute equates expiration of SOL with discharge of the debt.

At any time, a debt collector can contact you regarding an debt that has not been discharged.  The fact that any reporting to a CRA may have become excluded from your future credit reports only shields the fact of the debt from easy view by others via a simple pull of your credit report.

If a debt collector contacts you and asserts an unpaid, delinquent debt, then future applications you may make for credit may require its disclosure if the propeective lendor asks for disclosure of all unpaid debt.

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Would I have to disclose my repo that's been charged off - even after it's set to age off December (7 years)? (Florida SOL is 5 years, though I'm not sure that's applicalable here)

[Mikielf]

I was feeling pretty safe and had a zombie come up from 99. Was able to solve quickly and it was closed but freaked me out. I had completely cleaned up only baddie and had gotten credit. When I started I had no fico score. I was bad at paying bills in the late 90s. Waiting for more zombies now. It's a process.