@Anonymous wrote:
My husband and I are trying to clean up our credit to prepare to buy a house next summer. He currently has two large outstanding collections accounts on his report and those are the only negative things reporting.
1. Bank of America - never sold to debt collector, still with BoA - charged off, written off
last activity on account was 6/2014. No contact from BoA to ever attempt to collect on this account. Not even a single phone call or letter.
debt is 10,427 on a credit card with a limit of 16,000.
Debt is past the statute of limitations for our state.
2. Discover Bank - never sold to debt collector, charged off, written off - sued and was awarded judgment for full amount in 2016. They attempted to garnish wages and bank accounts in 2017 and 2018 but at the time, he was immigrating from Canada and could not legally work and had no money in bank accounts and no assets. This was over a year ago. No contact from them since. They have not attempted to garnish wages even though he has now been working a year and have not attempted to get any money from bank accounts. Updated information on court websites says 2/2019 "issuance of writ" and then 4/2019 "return of execution." Nothing else has been done on the court case against him. Debt is for $9843.
We are finally getting back on our feet from the LONG process of immigration. These are the only debts we have. We don't have the money to settle them in full. What would be our best options? I almost want to just not do anything because they should both be falling off within two years. But I do not think we can get approved for a home loan with these two charge offs. Is our best bet to try to negotiate a settlement? Lump sum? Payment plan? I'm so scared to touch either of them because they're fairly large debts and so close to the 7 year mark of falling off. But the cost of rent where we live is SO high and I'm sick of paying rent on a house for 8+ years now when we can be homeowners.
Hi and welcome
If SOL has passed on BoA card, you can leave it alone till if drops off unless you're willing to try and settle for less than owed
Discover, you're not safe. They will keep trying and they can renew judgement so, I would make some kind of arrangements with them.
Discover is very aggressive when it comes to litigation and collecting on judgements. You wont be safe from garnishment or liens even when it falls off. Legal action against you is different and separate animal from how long debt stays on your CR
As far as whether you should approach them, I would but with abundance of caution.
Just call and ask if they are willing to establish some kind of payment plan and if they are willing to settle for less at this point.
Maybe you should have a consultation with an attorney so they can provide you with advice on how to proceed with Discover.
They are really not joking once they start the process
Good luck and I hope you get this resolved
