Savvy, you're my hero!!!

great question

I agree, now I wonder what fabulous Sugar girl who decided in college to let her bills slide could of written to Savvy about this...

Years later I'm hearing my father's voice, "Aimee you can't let those bills just slide..."

I also here a "I told you so..." from him too...still paying the price at almost 27 yrs old. Damn it!

Savvy would you most likely have to contact the original creditor to find out when it became delinquent?

And you know what? When the creditor finally relents and drops the bad debit from your credit reports they are suppose to send you a 1099 or some such notice for the IRS and a notice advising you of the deletion but they do not always do this.

I had a number of spoiled credit cards from way back that were fraudulently opened under my name. I tried to have the bureaus remove them nope. There was no regulation or standard on how to deal with credit card fraud when the creditor refuses to accept their error. So I didn't pay one red cent. Having worked for 4 years at a VISA/MC credit card issuer I knew that eventually they would write off the debit and in 7 years the record would be removed. Well then Mr. Bush changed the rules a little stating that creditors no longer get endless shots at ruining your credit. IF they cannot collect in 7 years they completely lose their chance to collect from you at all. Creditors used to be able to reactive a bad debt should you pop up on the radar again - lord knows the credit card company I worked did it all the time.

About two years ago, I started receiving these strange notices from the original creditor not the agencies. 1099 and statements of I cannot remember the exact term basically stating that I owed nothing and that they had removed the bad debt from my credit report. About a week later I started receiving credit card solictations again.

I've got two more fraud credit cards that should have removed themselves from my report and should have sent IRS info but I've receive nada from those companies. I suspect that they are going to be the lone holdouts on resolving this matter. I've basically shut down my ability to obtain credit cards and CC companies abilities to send me unsolicited offers. And I learned while working at VISA/MC that credit cards truly are no good.

wackdoodle that is quite the experience, good lord!

Since you worked at a creditor before any input on my question above?

And I had no clue they are to send you a 1099!!

that's a GREAT question. i know that i got into some messiness when i was right out of college and i've been working really hard to right all that stuff, and it's still so frustrating to think that it's still reflected on my credit. at least i know that i have another few months and i'll be in the clear.

GOOD TIMING! I've got 2 things on my credit that the seven years was last month and this month. Hopefully they'll come off soon!
Also, those things are on my credit report twice. Once as the original debtor and then also as the collection agency. Will thye Both come off?

Oh Aimeeb I saw your question and thought Savvy would answer it, here goes...
You can contact the original creditor and request to know the exact date of the first delinquency however if it's been a while then they may have purged their records and put them on microfiche. Which they can still get for you though they may put up a fuss. You can also ask them for a copy of the last payment they received from you. They are required by law to keep these microfiche photos of the check or mo and of the envelope it arrived in. So you simply tell them that you question whether the check was even from you - blah, blah, blah and ask that they prove it by pulling a copy of the payment they got and sending it to you. Generally, that was how I proved to customers of mine when we had received their last few payments - I'd send them microfiche images of their last few payments.

Another way to the pull your credit report from one of the big 3 bureaus. When you get it there is general a simplified page and the detail page. On the simplified page it may flat out say "last payment report received on this date.

On the detail page it shows these headings 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91+ those are your delinquent buckets. Basically every time your late between 1-30 days some creditors will notify the bureaus of the delinquency. And the bureaus put a mark in the box for that late bucket. But the creditors of old used to wait until you had crossed into the 31-60 day buckets (I suspect that current lenders are no longer giving this grace period to customers). So here's how we use to determine when an account went delinquent - back tracking the date by the number of hits in each bucket. Stupid thing about creditors is they're redundant and by this I mean you're 31 days late the first time, then the next time the report they report again in the 31-60 bucket, then the next time they report to the bureaus in the 31-60 bucket AND the 61-90 bucket once. Often times creditors will actually list the last date of payment on the report as well. We'd look to see how many hits in the 31-60 day bucket and see how many there were in the next and the next buckets. IF there were 3 hits in the 31-60, 2 hits in the 61-90, and 1 hit in the 91+ bucket then the last payment was made over 120 days before. We add the 1-30 grace period figuring that if you made it to 31 days past due you had to have been 30 days past due first.

But the two easiest ways are to get your major bureau report - the whole shebang with detail and then contact the creditor and ask them if they show the actual last date they received a payment. Compare the two for accuracy.

Hope that helps. Geez, I hope it makes some sense.

Renee3 - yes both should come off. I hit to say this but give the bureaus about six months to catch up and correct show that these items have been purged.

Interesting thing about the big 3 (TRW, Equifax and Transunion) is that they really do not care if the common man's credit report is accurate. Their position is that it is your responsibility to ensure that its right.

However, there are three groups of people who the bureaus will always ensure have absolutely accurate credit reports - for fear of negative publicity and legal action. Big celebrities (Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Madonna, Oprah etc - not b-listers or minor players), Media bigwigs (National TV anchors, writers for big magazines and papers, and authors of best sellers-no j/k) and lastly POLITICIANS (state and Federal). The other other people the bureaus make sure have absolutely dead accurate reports are...The Supreme Court Justices.

Everyone else's report can be absolutely wrong and the bureaus can be aware of the errors and they will make no effort to correct the errors or advise you of the errors.

One female congressman has legislation purposing that the bureaus be required to keep absolutely accurate records for all citizens just like they do for politicians and stars but her bill keeps getting shot down.

Oh one last thing - Federal Student Loan debt is exempt from the 7 year business.

So I am screwed. ;-P

The 1099 is the form saying you are relinquished of debt correct? I read somewhere recently though that when the company writes off your debt it is technically a gain for you because you no longer have to pay that money so the IRS can then collect from you on that 1099.

be careful!

wackdoodle thanks a ton. I haven't run one this year yet since I don't have a printer at my apt and like printing it out. I have one from the past 3 years all Equifax and it doesn't show that number range breakdown.

Some show the date of first MAJOR delinquancy, does that count as my start date for the 7.5 years or is it the first general non payment that is starts from?

For example, if I had a bill due in Feb for say AmEx and I never paid it would that be the start of delinquancy or would it be like 3 months out when it's considered MAJOR?

Hope that makes sense...

Your delinquency started with the first missed payment. So if your payment was due February 10, 2002. Then officially that's day one and it's in the 1-30 bucket til the payment is 31 days past due. the problem comes when you start making new payments after being delinquent. It can confuse the timeline. Your 7.5 years starts from that first February 10 missed payment until 150 months have past.

Also the reports you order and receive in the mail from the bureaus seem to be far more accurate and have more info then the one you can print yourself.

Not sure why. I'd have to go on LinkedIn and find my old Equifax friends and ask what the deal is.

Are they really? I wonder if you can print AND get it in the mail, probably not...

Ya I had an Am Ex, Capital One and Providian. All in default and then I paid them all off in one lump sum to each. (instead of little here and there)

Ugghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

You mention my former employer!!!!!

Did you sue them? You know the were committing fraud with many of their ventures.

What??!! Do tell, I have no idea.

I wonder how easy it will be to get the date of when I went into delinquency with these companies...

Dispute it with the reporting agencies, or contact them and simply ask to have it removed. I had something on my credit that had been there for 6 years. Called each agency, asked for it to be deleted, and it was.

Hi Savvy-

Please help I need advice....so here's my story. I got myself into a car lease (completely screwed myself), make a long story short. At the end of the lease (BTW I payed for $504 for 60 mos.) I was not able to finance the balloon payment because I was late several times on my payment, so I turned in the vehicle......being waaaay over my milege now I owe 22,000 just for mileage and I can not repay in one lump sum. So the lender sold my acct. to a collection agency. so I spoke with an agent and settled on an agreement for $12,000. I was suppose to pay $500 down and $100 mnthly til paid off. The day I called to speak with the agent to give him my credit card info. for the down payment he was gone and his supervisor got on the phone who was extremely rude and said there's no way that they would or could have settled for 12k we argued for a minute as I tried to explain that I paid the vehicle off and the 22k was for high mileage I told them him there was no way I could pay the lump sum.....he ended up telling me that I'm the reason the economy is in the shape that it is and he would sue me and file a judgement and hung up on me! I know I screwed myself for being young and stupid when I got my self into this mess....can you please give me some advice.....what will happen to me??

You'd better believe they'll settle. I work for a debt settlement company, and our negotiators settle debts all day long. Creditors and collections agencies would rather get something rather than nothing. These people are trained in intimidation, and it sounds like that guy was playing hardball with you. Yes, he can sue you, and for 22k it might be worth his while, but only a judge can award a judgement. After that he still has to find a way to collect it. Keep trying to settle this, and if you can't, you can look into a settlement company to help you. Our negotiators used to be debt collectors themselves, so they know what to say to these people. My company is very reputable, a member of TASC. If you want my help let me know.