Old debt popped up??

AKO17 · ‎01-24-2016

All baddies have aged off my credit report as of December 2015, however I just received a letter in the mail from Convergent collection agency (never heard of them) trying to collect on a very, very old balance from Target. This aged off over a year ago, I think. How do I approach this? Do I send a DV? Notify all three credit agencies? Wait to see if it actually hits my reports? It's been a while since I've received such a letter, so I'm not sure how to go about mitigating the situation. Thank you for any and all advice.

Anonymous · ‎01-24-2016

@AKO17 wrote:
All baddies have aged off my credit report as of December 2015, however I just received a letter in the mail from Convergent collection agency (never heard of them) trying to collect on a very, very old balance from Target. This aged off over a year ago, I think. How do I approach this? Do I send a DV? Notify all three credit agencies? Wait to see if it actually hits my reports? It's been a while since I've received such a letter, so I'm not sure how to go about mitigating the situation. Thank you for any and all advice.

Sned a DV, making sure to specifically ask for the original date of first default. If they return validation, verifying the true age of the debt, then reply back with a cease communications letter.

RobertEG · ‎01-24-2016

... or you can discharge the debt by paying it, thus removing any issue of unpaid, delinquent debt.

Expiration of credit report exclusion and/or statute of limitations does not dischargethe debt, and may lead to the owner accepting a settlement for much less.

darwin_wins · ‎01-24-2016

@RobertEG wrote:
... or you can discharge the debt by paying it, thus removing any issue of unpaid, delinquent debt.
Expiration of credit report exclusion and/or statute of limitations does not dischargethe debt, and may lead to the owner accepting a settlement for much less.

At point does it become worth paying? What's a good amount when paying such things off? 20% of original amount? RobertEG I ask because I do have few that will drop off and got a offer to pay almost 1/3 which will drop off in few months. It is with EOS-CCA. I don't want them to update my CR and they haven't updated my CR in almost a year. What would you suggest?

gdale6 · ‎01-24-2016

@darwin_wins wrote:
@RobertEG wrote:
... or you can discharge the debt by paying it, thus removing any issue of unpaid, delinquent debt.
Expiration of credit report exclusion and/or statute of limitations does not dischargethe debt, and may lead to the owner accepting a settlement for much less.
At point does it become worth paying? What's a good amount when paying such things off? 20% of original amount? RobertEG I ask because I do have few that will drop off and got a offer to pay almost 1/3 which will drop off in few months. It is with EOS-CCA. I don't want them to update my CR and they haven't updated my CR in almost a year. What would you suggest?

If its past states SOL and CRTP then I would offer no more than 20% to settle it. You can DV as Norman says and possibly get rid of them. Once its been excluded from your report for being past mandated time limits it can never again be legally reported to your CR. Convergent deals mostly in zombie debts so low ball offers are good. If you dont want to hear from them again then a FOAD letter would be in order, you can google what this is...

AKO17 · ‎01-26-2016

It is well past 7 years old. They cannot legally report it but I want to ensure they do not try. I'll try the DV letter.

Anonymous · ‎01-26-2016

@AKO17 wrote:
It is well past 7 years old. They cannot legally report it but I want to ensure they do not try. I'll try the DV letter.

They actually can report it, but the CRA's cannot show it on a standard report.

RobertEG · ‎01-26-2016

There is no prohibition against the debt collector reporting to the CRAs.

Credit report exclusion is a prohibition imposed upon the CRAs, preventing them from including adverse items in credit reports they issue, not a prohibltion against furnishers from reporting to the CRAs. FCRA 605(a)(4).

If they do report, they are required to also report the DOFD to the CRA no later than 90 days after reporting their collection.

The CRA will then use the DOFD to determine whether they can include the collection in any normal credit reports they issue.

If the collection appears in your credit report after expiration of the credit report exclusion period, then the debt collector provided a DOFD that is less than 7 years plus 180 days ago. The recourse would be to file a dispute of the accuracy of the reported DOFD, whcih if sucessful in correcting the DOFD,will then require exclusion of hte collection from your credit report.

AKO17 · ‎01-26-2016

What does it report to then and how does it affect my scores?

AKO17 · ‎03-11-2016

Wanted to add that I used the Texas DV letter template sent via certified mail for this issue. A few weeks later I received a letter back with a message stating "We are not currently handling this account and any negative remarks on your credit reports will be deleted." They never reported anything, but at least I have a confirmation for my files.