Status of Limitations Verses 7 years on your credit

[monieleazenby]

I wanted to know what it means the status of limitations does that apply in terms of the whole 7 years? This is my first time trying to clean my credit up, when I'm looking at my credit report do I look at the "Date Reported" or "DLA" Date Open? For older debts I need to make sure I'm not chasing after due to the status of limitations. I know nothing about any of this it's all new to me. Before I even start to wipe out any debt I need to know what the status of limitation is referred too, is it based on my credit report?

Again full details would be of great help

Monie

[DaBears]

Once a debt passes beyond the statute of limitation in your state, a debt collector no longer has the right to sue you for payment. You may still have a moral obligation to pay back an old, forgotten debt, but you can't be sued over it.

Any debt collector who threatens to sue you over a debt that is beyond the statute of limitation in your state is in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

[Shogun]

Statute of limitations deals with how long you can be sued and garnished for the debt.  This varies from state to state.  The date that "starts the clock" for this is the DOFD which is the Date of First Delinquency.  This is when the debt went in arrears and was not brought current.

The 7 years you are referring to concerns how long the debt can be included in your CR. A debt can be past the SOL and still be able to be included on your CR.  Say the statute in your state is 3 years, then it can pass the SOL but still be on your CR, you just can't be sued for the debt.

On the other hand, if your state SOL is 10 years, then it can be excluded from your CR but you are still able to be sued and garnished for the debt.

The DLA and Date opened have nothing to do with starting the clock on these, it goes by the DOFD.

[RobertEG]

+1, with the proviso that, while DOFD also determines the date of initial running of the SOL, some states have provisions for reset ot the SOL based on certain actions take by the consumer, such as firm offers to pay or a partilal payment.  Carefully review your state SOL prior to concluding that the SOL has expired or making any payments.

However, there are NO reset provisions of the credit report exclusion period.  If the information is a collection, then credit report exclusion must occur no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD, regardless of any subsequent activites reported by the debt collector.

SOL and credit report exclusion periods are totally separate.

Additionally, if the debt collector owns the debt, they have the specific option under the FDCPA to bring legal action in either the jurisdicition where the contract creating the debt was signed or in the state of current residency of the consumer.  Was the axxount opened while you were residing in another state? 

If so, you should also review the SOL statute of that state before concluding that SOL has clearly expired.

If you pay the debt, then of course all issues of whether the SOL has expired become moot, as their would no longer be a debt upon which they could sue.

By pursuing payment of the debt, you might also be able to obtain their agreement to delete the collection, and thus eliminate the continued inclusion of the collection for its full 7/180.

[monieleazenby]

Thank you to all who have provide me with such good insights I'm new to all this, believe it or not, it is actually refreshing to attack my debts and try to reconcile them as to oppose to running from them and not cleaning my debt, I'm inspired by all of you here for rooting me on thank you again for all your feedback.

Monie