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If it is in fact 9 years old, I am sure it is well past the SOL and it is certainly past the reporting time to be on your reports.
Did you read the letter carefully, normally if it's past the SOL, at the bottom of the letter it will state :
"the law limits how long you can be sued on a debt and how low it appears on reports. Due to the age of this debt, we will not sue or report payment or non payment to the credit bureau"
This is probably somewhere on your letter, seems like they are fishing a 'zombie debt"
Thank you for the replies.
I checked the letter and there is nothing stated on it like Jnbmom mentioned. I realize that unless I see it in writing I can't be 100% sure of the DoFD, but I've had zero contact with the university since I graduated in 2010 when the alleged debt would have occurred.
In the letter the collection agency states that if I notify their office in wiriting within 30 days to "dispute the validity of this debtor any portion thereof" that they will obtain a copy of a judgement and mail me a copy of the judgement or verification. My inclination is to go ahead and write them stating that I dispute the debt because I don't know exatctly what it's for and/or that it is past the statutue of limitiations. Any thoughts on taking this course of action and if so, might it be best to simply state that I dispute it and simply leave it at that or in addition state either or both of the reasons I mentioned above.
I realize that I will ultimately have to decide what to do next but hearing about experiences in similar matters definitely helps.
I would not worry about it appearing in your credit report if the debt became delinquent more than 7 years plus 180 days ago.
FCRA 605(a)(4), as clarified by FCRA 605(c), prevents any collection from being included in your credit report after a max period of 7 years plus 180 days from the initial date of your delinquency on the debt.
The exclusion period set forth in the FCRA applies regardless of whether the debt is paid or remains unpaid.
The CRA determines whether or not the exclusion period has expired by using the date of first delinquency that is required to be reported by the debt collector.
More specifically, if a debt collector reports a collection to a CRA, they are additionally required to provide the date of first delinquency (DOFD) to the CRA no later than 90 days after having reported their collection. See FCRA 623(a)(5).
It is possible that a debt collector could report an inaccurate DOFD to the CRA that is still within the 7 years plus 180 day exclusion period, but you can immediately dispute the accuracy of that reporting and get an investiation by the debt collector and a reinvestigation by the CRA concluded within 30'ish days.
Advisory statements that a debt is beyond the statute of limitations for your state are only required under a few state codes, such as CA and NYS. North Carolina has no such requirement, and thus the advisory statement that they cannot or will not sue is not required as part of dunning notices in North Carolina.
If the debt clearly became delinquent nine years ago, it is clearly now outside of the SOL for debt in NC.
You also ask whether or not you should send a debt validation request within the 30-day period set within the dunning notice.
My advise is yes.
A timely request for debt validation will impose an automatic cease collection bar on the debt collector, which prevents them from conducting any further collection activities until they have first sent validation. See FDCPA 809(b).
It will not require them to send validation within any period, but until they do so, they must cease further collection activities, including calls or letters.
Thank you Robert. Your post contained every bit of information that I was looking for and I very much apprectiate you taking the time to write it. I hope this helps XtraCredit as well and anyone who comes across this thread.
Thanks again to all who replied!
I'm suprised they let you graduate with owed money. Universities can, and will, refuse to release degrees and transcripts while being owed money.
I would recommend contacting your school directly to make sure there are no adverse affects of the account going to collections.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you Robert. Your post contained every bit of information that I was looking for and I very much apprectiate you taking the time to write it. I hope this helps XtraCredit as well and anyone who comes across this thread.
Thanks again to all who replied!
Robert is like the ultimate myFICO guru. He's quite the legend in these parts LOL.