I have many small deliquencies on my credit report ($200 or less) that will expire in 2 or 3 years from my?

Question

credit report. I'm going to school now and figured by the time I get out, these will stop being reported, and my credit report will be clean? (I'll have a job that actuallys pays money) 90% of the amount is in fees anyway, so I don't feel bad about it. In the meantime I'm considering opening a secured visa and using that so my recent credit will be good as the old, bad ones fall off.

Is this correct or just hearsay?

Answer 1

I have to disagree with the way the reporting SOL was explained.

The reporting period is "7" years, not 7 years + 180 days.
The reporting period for credit cards is 7 years from the "first" time you became 30 days late and never brought the account current leading to the charge off. Not from when the charge off occurs.
The reporting and collecting SOL for loans begin from your last late payment.
The reporting and collecting SOL for medical begins on the date of service.
The reporting and collecting SOL for repo's begins on the date the vehicle was sold creating the deficiency.

As for the 180 days, the FTC allows the CRA's the extra 180 days for "possible" inaccuracies of the obsolescence date reported by the data furnishers.
If an account remains past the 7 year mark, it should be disputed as obsolete.

Click on my profile and click on the FTC link I have provided - FTC, reporting SOL DOFD explained.


Just because it is 2 or 3 years from falling off your reports, or if the accounts fall off your reports, does not mean the collection agency cannot legally continue to try and collect if you are still within the collecting SOL.

If you are past the collecting SOL, you are not legally bound to pay the debt.

Click on the link I have provided in my profile to check the collecting SOL for your state.

As far as opening a secured card, half of credit repair is creating positive credit. Keep in mind that if you are still within the collecting SOL, any activity on your reports - new accounts, etc., could "wake up" the collection agency and result in them actively trying to collect.

Answer 2

If you say they will fall off in 2-3 years, assuming you are thinking of the 7 years that means they are currently 4-5 years old. Depending on the type of deliquencies you are still within the statute of limitations in many states. which means they could still sue you. Depending on the company they will sue you for the money no matter how small, but will generally wait until the SOL is about to expire. If they do sue you they can get a garnishment of your wage, or future wages, if your current income is not high enough.

Morals say you should just pay the amounts. If they are $200 or less and most are fees, they will probably settle for a lump sum payment of 40%-60% of the amount. One thing to also do is say you will pay it, if they remove all negative information(just get that in writing). For this small amount they might be willing to do that if you give a lump sum payment. Then your credit is good now and you don't have to wait 2 years.

Answer 3

I'm going to give you a quick explanation of how the 7 year statute of limitation for debt reporting works.

The reporting period runs 7 ½ years from the date (month and year) of the creditor's action (charge off, sell or transfer) on the debt NOT from the last missed payment date.

A payment was due on January 10, 1996 but, you failed to make that payment and never made another payment. The Creditor waits until August 1996 to take action (charge off, send to collections or sell/transfer) on the debt.

The 180 day count began on the creditors action month, in this case August 96, and runs until February 97 at which time the seven (7) year reporting period begins and runs until February 2004

Prior to 1996, any account activity extended the reporting period so creditors and collectors took advantage of this loophole to keep negative items on a consumer's report for many years. In order to eliminate this loophole, Congress amended the FCRA in 96 and firmly established a date from which the 7 1/2 year period begins as the month/year of delinquency (last missed payment).

Therefore, whether the 71/2 -year period has expired or not, the running of the reporting period cannot be adjusted just because one of the following events or actions occur:

Creditor sells or transfers the debt;

You respond to a post-charge off collection effort by making a payment or signing a payment agreement;

You dispute the account or item with a credit reporting agency (CRA).

So, you can play the waiting game to see whether or not they'll fall off your report, but don't have the expectation that it will fall off. It is a remote chance that they may still remain.

That's an excellent idea to open up a secured credit card to establish good credit. A piece of advice when doing that is to make small purchases that can be paid off in full on time every month. Also, you may want to raise your credit line by adding to the security deposit ever so often so that once it does become secured, not only it wil show that you were responsible with high credit limits, but it also gives you a card with a limit that you're satisfied with.

Answer 4

No. They will still post it on your report. The best thing is to contact the credit bureau and ask them to remove it. They may say no but sometimes they will