AMEX Collection Letter for Time-Barred Debt

[Anonymous]

Greetings!

After working hard to dig out of debt after an illness, we have been able to get our credit back on track over the past eight years. Thinking the nightmare was behind us (including two lawsuits), two days ago we received a letter from American Express Global Collections regarding an old debt that was CO back in 2011.  The DOFD (I spent hours reading the forum learning the lingo) shown on my CR is 10/2009.

The letter has a box at the top that reads, "We must inform you that the law limits how long a debt can be reported to a consumer reporting agency. Because of the age of your debt, we cannot report it to a consumer reporting agency. Payment or non-payment of this debt will not affect your credit score."

I'm in California that has a SOL of 4 years, and I read about a case where AMEX used the Utah SOL of 6 years, but either case it seems like we're well beyond the SOL.  Legally, I don't believe they can report the debt, or file suit for a judgment, but I also have read that AMEX never gives up.  The offer is for 40% of the balance (which is greatly inflated with junk charges).

Here are my questions:

1.  Is there anything the OC can do at this time?

2.  If not, should I just ignore them or should I send a letter telling them the debt is time-barred?

Thank you in advance for your help. 

[Shadowfactor]

If it’s past SOL, they can’t sue you for it but that doesn’t mean they have to give up trying to collect on the debt. They can still mail letters or try anything else to collect that falls within the guidelines of the law.

Amex has a long memory and you will be blacklisted until the debt has been paid.
If your interested in ever getting an Amex card again. I would call and see about repayment for the optima card program.

[austingal]

I too have been receiving letters like this from them periodically. I just ignore them as there is nothing they can really do.

If I had enough money to pay them in full I would contact them about their Optima Oasis program, which is basically paying what you owe them and in exchange they let you have a credit card again with them. The only way to ever get an Amex again after you've burned them is to do this program basically.

Since I don't have anywhere near the amount of money I will just chill for now unless I get a little windfall someday. I don't think they will let you settle for less and still get a card with them. I'm under the impression that you have to pay the full total to get back in with them.

[RobertEG]

I would not advise anyone to ignore a legitimate debt.

What the creditor can do is to continue efforts to collect, such as continued calls, letters, and/or pulls of your credit report, for which they retain permissible purpose until the debt is discharged.

You can advise them that you consider the SOL to have expired, but they likely already know that.

If, in any future application for credit, a creditor asks if you have any unpaid, delinquent debt and you agree that the debt is legit, then you would have an obligation to answer truthfully.. Creditors know that future circumstances could result in a consumer being asked to pay prior debt before any consideration of grant of new credit, even if the debt is now beyond SOL, so it is purely your decision as to whether you wish to remove that issue..........

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@austingal wrote:

I too have been receiving letters like this from them periodically. I just ignore them as there is nothing they can really do.

If I had enough money to pay them in full I would contact them about their Optima Oasis program, which is basically paying what you owe them and in exchange they let you have a credit card again with them. The only way to ever get an Amex again after you've burned them is to do this program basically.

Since I don't have anywhere near the amount of money I will just chill for now unless I get a little windfall someday. I don't think they will let you settle for less and still get a card with them. I'm under the impression that you have to pay the full total to get back in with them.

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This is not true. They will let you back in over time, but you're looking at a minimum of about 10 years depending on what was owed. The optima is a leveraging tool and has to be negotiated for prior to starting a payment plan. I created an amex blacklist thread to collect data points from people that were blacklisted.  You will get back in with Amex, it'll just be faster if the entire debt is paid back.