Question About A Dismissed Bankruptcy

[Anonymous]

I filed personal banckruptcy in 2001 and had a payment schedule that was very managable for me. But a year and a half later I lost my job and long story short, the bankruptcy was dismissed in 2003 because I was behind in payments. I got a good job in 2004 and things have been going well since then. In the last year I have gotten letters regarding accounts that had been included in the banckrupcy (some from collection agencies and some from attorney offices).

My question is how long do creditors or their agents have to collect on these debts? Is it possible or likely they will pursue legal judgements? All of these debts were personal, unsecured loans / credit cards ranging from $3,000 to $18,000.

Looking at my cedit reports I see that many of these debts have been transferred to collection agencies multiple times with each collection agency appearing on my credit report as a separate item (although each relates to the same debt). Is there a limit to the number of times the same debt can appear on my cedit report or can each debt be continually transferred indefinitely and haunt me forever (and keep lowering my credit score with each appearance on my credit reports)? I'm at a point where I want to buy my first home but I'm not sure how the dimissed bankruptcy and charge offs will affect my application. Any advice?

Thank You.

[Tuscani]

Welcome.. Please read the Scoring 101 thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

[Anonymous]

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SimplyTheBest wrote:

I filed personal banckruptcy in 2001

...

the bankruptcy was dismissed in 2003

...

My question is how long do creditors or their agents have to collect on these debts?

...

Looking at my credit reports I see that many of these debts have been transferred to collection agencies multiple times

...

Is there a limit to the number of times the same debt can appear on my cedit report

...

I'm at a point where I want to buy my first home but I'm not sure how the dimissed bankruptcy and charge offs will affect my application. Any advice?

---

Yet another example disproving the Myth of the Immoral Debtor. My implication is to file BK7 and put the debt behind you. To survive people have to develop an amoral approach to credit and debt.

The SOL varies from state to state. In what state do you reside? See the link in my sig SOL v. CRTP.

DOFD may or may not be the date of your BK13 dismissal. It could possibly be from 2001 when you filed or before.

OCs can give a debt to one CA after another, but the debt can only appear twice. Once under the OC and one under the current CA to whom it's assigned.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, your response was very helpful and there is some great info in the links you provided. To answer your question, I live in California and filed bankruptcy there as well. Do you know the SOL for California for credit cards and unsecured loans?

[Anonymous]

California is 4 years.

[Anonymous]

I know that 4 years is the normal statute of limitations but I'm wondering if my dismissed bankruptcy could have reset the clock so that the SOL would be 4 years from the dismissal of the bankruptcy rather than 4 years from initial late / missed payment on the account. Anyone know how this works in California?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Yes, the dismissed bankruptcy will have an effect.  The tolling of the statute during bankruptcy is "suspended".  For example, if the date of delinquency is 1-2001, the statute would be 1-2005 [check my addition].  During BK, you are protected.  So let's say you file in 1-2002 and are dismissed in 1-2003.  One year of BK.  Had the BK not been filed, the SOL would be up 1-2005, but because there was a year in there that the BK was tolled, the SOL would expire on 1-2006.  I don't know your exact dates, but let's just say for the sake of argument that the DOFD was 12/2000, you filed 1/2001 and dismissed 1/2003.  Your statute would have been up 12/2004, but there are two years of BK in there, so you wouldn't be up until 12/2006.  It's actually a little more complicated than that, but that is the basic way it works.  Sounds like you should be ok as far as the SOL, as yours should have expired in 2006, provided the date of delinquency was 12/2000.  If you were not delinquent prior to filing, then I believe [and I may be wrong] your clock would restart at the date of dismissal.