Paying off Old Debt

Hi L.! YES, if it has been sold to a collection company, you can pay less. Last year I paid off all the depts on my report so I am speaking from experience. Just tell them a certain amount that you can pay and they will usually take it. If not, they'll definitely negociate as long as they have a chance of getting some money.

It won't disappear after 7 years. Like someone said, the debt will change hands before 7 years with them passes, and therefore makes the debt appear to be new. I speak from experience. Things don't magically disappear after 7 years.

Now, what you need to do is contact the original utility company and ask to settle it with them. If it's with a collection agency, you need to fire them via Cease & Desist letter and that will kick your debt back to the utility company, OR another collection agency. Then you keep doing the same thing until it bounces back to the original creditor. You are only liable to pay whoever the debt was originally with.

You mentioned you are looking to buy a house. I highly recommend CTX Mortgage. Like most mortgage companies, they will run your credit and tell you what you need to pay to qualify. We did our loan with them completely by fax and we didn't even meet any of our loan people until the day we closed on our brand spankin'new house!!

L., Those accounts are so close to falling off your report, I would not try to settle them at this point. Chances are a debt that small and that old will not hurt your chances of getting a mortgage at this point. If your mortgage person insists they are an issue, I would just wait the additional few months before I bought a house. Recheck the reports once all the debts should have passed the 7 year mark and make sure they are all off before you apply for the mortgage. Sometimes you have to contact the credit reporting agencies to alert them to the fact that the negative items are over 7 years old and need to be removed. Good luck!

Hello, my name is R. I amja Certified Credit Counselor and worked as one for 2 years. THose Utilities from 2001, leave them where they are, they are getting ready to fall off of your credit anyway and settling (bad idea) or paying anything on them at this point will only re-open the files and have them contacting you and starting the time frame all over, If you are buying a house that is not something that will be looked at especially since that is so old...So I would leave it be DO NOT CONTACT THEM AT ALL.

My mother-in-law had an issue with a catalog company on a bill that she paid back in 2000. They said she didn't, she said she did. She had ripped up her receipt years ago, so she didn't have any proof. Her question was why did it take them 5 years to settle up her "debt". There was some time limitations on trying to collect a debt. The company has left it alone after she reminded them that she paid.

I wouldn't agree with not contacting them at all...what I would do and did is dispute them. I do agree with not paying on them. Let me tell you how this works. The whole 7 year thing is a farce...the reason being is because your debt is sold so many times in that 7 years that it never has a chance to become 7 years old. What happends is when SBC sells it to ABC (or whoever) they reopen this as if is were a brand new debt. However, if you dispute this OLD debt it goes back to the original debtor and they must decide then if the debt is valid. Chances are they have purged their systems since then and they don't even have a record of it. If they do indeed want to claim it and have it remain on your report they must pay to do so. Most companies won't do that...they'll just right it off and you in turn win without paying anything at all.
I don't like the idea of people not paying their bills but sometimes companies that buy bad debt will add their own charges and a small debt can turn into a huge debt. DO NOT PAY THIS. Dispute it and it should fall completely off your report.
I did this for my husband before we got married and I removed about $14000 worth of old bad debt from his report. Companies cannot put something on your report that they cannot verify and chances are if it's that old they can't!
Oh yeah...and don't contact the debtor to remove it, do it through the reporting agency. That is the only way to have it removed is through them (i.e. transunion and the two other major bureaus)

Don't do it! Those old things fall off your credit report after 7 years. However, if you make any payment on them at all, they can re-age your account and start the 7 years all over again. A loan officer can tell you how much difference those old utility bills are likely to make, given your credit score--my guess is, not much, and not worth re-aging the debt for another 7 years.

L., my husband and I work for Freedom Debt - a debt settlement company...yours is past the statute of limitations in Texas so I can't really help you but would advise that when you call to negotiate a settlement make one of the stipulations that they report it to the credit bureaus as "settled in full, agreed upon by both parties." Looks better on your credit report...good luck!

Find out how you can settle and pay them off. We experienced that problem when we were purchasing our house and a new car a year later. A couple were our fault and 1 was the fault of Golds Gym. Once they are paid off you will need to ask for them to send you settlement letters that the account is free and clear. They say they will report it, but not always. That is why we encountered the problem a year after we bought our house when we were buying my hubby's truck. I was glad I had those letters because all I had to do was mail them to all the credit bureaus.

Good Luck!

If you pay it or call them they will update your credit report and it will stay on another 7 yrs. Dispute it with the credit bureau. It might take 30 days but they may remove it. There are also people who can help you repair your credit report legally. When we were going to buy a house. I hired a company to do that, it really helped. It cost me $600.

It is not legal for them to resale the debt after 7 years. I have been through this before.

I would assume that most of these have been passed of to some collection company. Yes you can settle them for less. My husband and I had one with ATT (SBC and ATT have joined) and we settled it. After we settled ATT sent us on to 3 other collection companies we have proof of our settlement so we just had to keep sending it on to the next collection company. ATT finaly stopped selling it to new collection companies after we threatened to sue them. So just make sure that you KEEP ALL DOCUMENTATION.

I was going to respond to this, but saw everyone else saying the same thing I was going to say. Leave it there and dispute it -- they'll take it off or it will fall off on it's own soon anyway. It's too old for the lenders to care about it as far as your mortgage goes. Best of Luck!

Two words every one gets sick of, I'm sure, but oh, well...Dave Ramsey! And If you will look for a lender that will do a "par quote" and do "manual underwriting"- where your credit wortiness is about more than your Ficos Score (scar), you will be better off anyway. Check out Churchill Mortgage on Dave's website www.daveramsey.com

Been there, done that!
Good Luck!
D.