I have several delinquent accounts on my credit report that are about to drop off.?

Question

My score is currently 567 with two accounts that are fairly new (6-12 mos) and in perfect standing. All of my neg accounts are dropping off in the next 3-10 mos. They were all incurred at the same time after a layoff. (It has been just about the 7 year limit.) I was curious how much my score will change with the dropoff of about 6 accts that are neg? I plan to open one more account, a car loan. But I am waiting for the negs to change my score. So I guess the question is, has anyone waited for negs to drop off, and if so, what was the net change for better or worse to your credit score?

Answer 1

SCH is absolutely incorrect and should read the FCRA.
Once the accounts reach the end of the legal reporting period, it would be illegal to re-age the accounts and report them for a longer period.

I think acermill may have been referring to the collecting SOL, not the reporting period, by the comment of them coming back to haunt you. (I'll get to the haunting part a little further down)
Though with the accounts being that age it's quite possible that you are near or past the collecting SOL for your state.
You should really check the collecting SOL for your state to see where you stand.

If you have a thick file that has long positive history, it's possible that your scores may dip a bit, but more than likely they may stay the same or maybe even rise.
If you have the two accounts plus other accounts (credit cards, loans, mortgage, etc) it may only take about 6 months more or less to see your scores rise if they do drop.

If the negatives make up most of your credit file and are the oldest accounts, you can probably expect a drop in scores when they fall off. Even though they are negatives you will be losing the long history (yeah, dumb I know)
If that is the case and all you have are the two new accounts, it may take longer for your scores to rise.

"IF" you are past the collecting SOL for your state, you might start sending disputes to the CRA's for the accounts that are close to dropping off.
Start with the ones that are due to drop off between now and 6 months. Many people have had luck with getting deletions a little earlier through disputes. The sooner the accounts drop off, the sooner your scores will rebound.

(now for the haunting part I mentioned earlier)

I mentioned that you should check your collecting SOL for a reason. If you are still within the collecting SOL and the creditor/collector hasn't been actively persuing payment, it's possible that they may start the closer the accounts get to dropping off or if you dispute the accounts with the CRA's.

If you are past the collecting SOL, you have a legal right to inform the creditor/collector that the accounts are no longer legally collectible by sending a SOL letter.

If you are past the collecting SOL it is totally up to you to decide if you want to pay or not. But right now, as far as the reporting goes, paying probably won't make a difference. Since most, if not all, of the accounts would be off of your reports by the time validation letters, pay for delete/pay in full agreement letters, money order or cashiers checks are sent and the creditor/collector gets around to deleting accounts - that probably would have already fallen off on their own
It would boil down to moral obligation.

Can they still sue if you are past the collecting SOL? Legally no, but that does not always stop them. It would be up to you to use a SOL defense.
And, if you have already sent them SOL letters, the judge would definately not look to kindly on them for knowingly filing on a time barred debt. (and you could possibly receive up to $1000 if you file a counter claim for them filing on a time barred debt)

If you are still within the collecting SOL for your state, and even if you keep your head down, they could still legally sue.
Then you would have a few options. You could make a deal, you could look for any violations they have committed in their reporting or their correspondence to you and file counters, or you could go ahead and let them get a default judgment.

You might click on my profile and do some reading in the links I've provided to the FDCPA, FCRA, etc.


(sorry this turned out to be such a long post)

Answer 2

The fact that the only other credit history that you have is less than a year old your score will probably not be very high since length of credit is 30% of the score. Did you file bankruptcy? That is the only thing I know of that drops off after 7 years.

Answer 3

The 1st person is right...if you have not settled or retired the debt (if it is still showing active on your report) it will come back to haunt you. One of several ways, they will sell it or reassign it again so that it will be active again for another 7 years, they will reissue it to the same company who will again report it. You are better off just paying them and getting it setteled so they will for sure drop off.

Answer 4

Have you retired the debt on the negatives or just left them unpaid ? If they're not paid up, expect them to come back to haunt you. The net change is variable if they will truly drop off. Depends on how much they brought your score down in the first place, and that depends on the severity of the negative itself.