Long expired debt

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

I suddenly got a mail from a collection agency today. They are asking for $250 dollars (ready to settle for 50% off) for a electricity bill which is over 7  years old. Statute of limitation in CT is 6 years. I have moved from CT over 6 years ago and till now never knew that this bill existed.

I'm in desperate need of some guidance here. As the SOL is long over, they can't sue me, but can they suddenly add this as a "collection account" in my credit report?

I have been also reading online, where people are saying that paying on a "time barred" account can reopen the account and can actually make it worse for my credit report.

Should I just pay the original electricity company. Not sure whether I can even do that.

Any suggesstion is extremely appreciated

Thanks,

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Guys,

I suddenly got a mail from a collection agency today. They are asking for $250 dollars (ready to settle for 50% off) for a electricity bill which is over 7  years old. Statute of limitation in CT is 6 years. I have moved from CT over 6 years ago and till now never knew that this bill existed.

I'm in desperate need of some guidance here. As the SOL is long over, they can't sue me, but can they suddenly add this as a "collection account" in my credit report?

I have been also reading online, where people are saying that paying on a "time barred" account can reopen the account and can actually make it worse for my credit report.

Should I just pay the original electricity company. Not sure whether I can even do that.

Any suggesstion is extremely appreciated

Thanks,

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Hello and welcome.

Was this account ever charged off or be sent to collections? Or was it just late payments? I ask because the CRTP (Credit Reporting Time Period) is slightly different for each.

Late payments can report no longer than 7 years from each individual date of delinquency while charge offs and collections can report for up to 7.5 years from the DoFD (Date of First Delinquency) on the OC (Original Creditor) account that led to the CO or collection.

If the CRTP has expired this cannot ever be added to your reports.

Edited for a typo.

[RobertEG]

The debt collector is free to report their collection to the CRAs at any time.

It is the resonsibility of the CRAs to monitor any item reported after a collection of charge-off, and determine whether more than 7 years plus 180 days has expired from the DOFD on the OC account.  The CRA is the party responsible for assuring that they dont appear in your credit report by blocking access to any such information.

The rub in the oitment is that the CRA can only base credit report exclusion on the DOFD reported to them.

If an item appears or remains in your CR after its exclusion date, it could be due to one of two things.  Either the reporting party provided the improper DOFD to the CRA, or else the CRA failed in its obligation to properly track and exclude the information.  Who to purse incorrect CR inclusion with depends upon the reason for its continued inclusion.

[Anonymous]

First of all, THANK YOU MarineVietVet and Robert for your replies.

If the CRTP is exactly at 7 years, does that mean that even if the Collection agency puts it in my credit report, it will get dropped off in 0.5 years as the 7.5 years from the original delinquency date will be then over?

Should I try to contact the electric company and explain that I never knew the bill existed and try to pay them directly. Will that help?

Thanks again

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First of all, THANK YOU MarineVietVet and Robert for your replies.

If the CRTP is exactly at 7 years, does that mean that even if the Collection agency puts it in my credit report, it will get dropped off in 0.5 years as the 7.5 years from the original delinquency date will be then over? Yes, once the CRTP has expired then the item must be deleted.

Should I try to contact the electric company and explain that I never knew the bill existed and try to pay them directly. Will that help? It's always a good idea to see if the OC will work with you.

Thanks again

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