Can they do this?

Question

I had a telephone line that I had turned off back in 98. I had moved to CA at this time from NJ. I didnt know there was a remaining balance until this week when I received a letter from a collection agency. This is almost 10 yrs ago. Are they allowed to do this after so long?

Answer 1

The answer is maybe. Negative items reported on your credit report do have an expiration date - usually 7 years. But creditors can pursue debt collection for varying amounts of time. I found a chart here: http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-limitations.html

Answer 2

The statue of limitations in NJ is 6yrs. Most likely this is a time barred account since it is 10 yrs old and you will not have to pay it. Write a letter to whatever company is trying to collect the debt and ask for validation. They can no longer contact you unless they can show a bill.

Answer 3

Well it depends on the size of the Co. Some small companies will right it off.

As long as you left a forwarding address for any charges still in the cycle of the month that you left.

New bill coming out.

Late payment penalties may not exceed 1.5 percent per month of the overdue balance and late payment penalties may not be applied to bills of less than $20.

Billing Disputes

This rule establishes requirements for carriers when resolving billing disputes:
Carriers must reach a determination regarding the dispute and communicate it to the customer within 30 days.

Carriers must not disconnect service until seven days after the carrier notifies the customer of the results of its investigation.
Carriers may not take adverse collection action or assess late charges or penalties while carrier and CPUC investigations of disputed billing charges are pending.

Prohibits carriers from requiring adjudication of disputes in venues outside of California or the county in which the customer is billed or primarily uses the service.

This is listed for California not sure what holds true for NJ.

Answer 4

Most collection agency's buy up old delinquent balances for pennies per dollar owed. There is in the law, statue of limitation, each state is different. Ten years probably applies, so you don't owe, but there business is to intimidate you into paying. Let them sue you and they will give up.

Answer 5

The statute of limitations, whatever it is, limits how long they can SUE to collect. They can ask for the money until you die. After nearly 10 years, the only way they can enforce collection is to refuse to do business with you unless you pay. If you never intend to do business with that company again, I doubt their is anything they can do.

Answer 6

It goes off of your credit report after 7 years, but they can try to collect for as long as they want (send letters and make phone calls, not sue).

Answer 7

Statue of limitations is seven years, I am positive of this because I use to do collections. It is up to you if you want to pay this or not. If you have good credit and are able to pay it I personally would. This way you always have an explaination as to why it was on your credit for so long before paying it.

Answer 8

There is a statue of limitations check your state, (the 1 the bill was in) for exact amount of years.

Answer 9

as long as you dont have any contact with the people you owe or creditors for 7 years after then they cant do a thing i am not really sure if thats true i heard it some where

Answer 10

Contrary to popular belief, there is no statute of limitations on bad debts. Yes, they can try to collect this old debt.