Debt Liability vrs Credit Report

[Anonymous]

I know some states (may be all) have Statute of Limitations on debt.  My question is how does this affect a credit report?

An example that I was thinking was a Fingerhut/webbank charge off that is now past the statute of limitations meaning regardless there has been no activity past the statute of limitations in the state I currently reside, which is also the state I opened the account in.

It currently shows a 0 balance and there is an option for "I am no longer Liable for this debt" to dispute it.

I'm not saying I'm going to do this, I am curious though if this were possible?  Let's say a creditor didn't do anything in the time frame they had to collect on the debt so legally they still can't collect, but can they still report?

I'm not sure it would work on the one above because it does list a balance of $0, which means their is no debt to dispute the liability of.  

I'm more curious about it than anything else.  I don't have anything on my credit or elsewhere that I know of that actually has an outstanding debt that would fall under these laws.  It just got me wondering and it's something I can't seem to find online.

[RobertEG]

Expiration of SOL does not mean that you are no longer liable for the debt.

It means that under the laws of that state, the owner can no longer obtain a judgment on the debt if the consumer raises an SOL defense.

Thus, the basic premise that expiration of SOL equates to expiration of continued liability for the debt is generally incorrect.

However, and more importantly to removal of the derogs, the SOL for suing on a debt has no bearing upon the credit report exclusion period, which is a totally separate and distinct period that relates to when a CRA must discontinue inclusion of adverse items in credit reports they issue.  They are separate, and an account with a reported charge-off has a maximum exclusion date of no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the DOFD, regardless of the state SOL on the debt.

Credit report exclusion similarly does not remove continued liability for the entire debt.  It conceals knowledge by others of the unpaid debt by removing its showing in your credit report.