spanky62798 Posted January 20, 2005 Report Share Posted January 20, 2005 My husband and I have struggled financially over the past several years due to job layoffs. We have finally reached a point where we have the money to pay on things that we hadn't been. My question is, several of the items on our reports are 5+ years old. Is it worth paying them, when they are getting ready to fall off. We aren't able to pay things in full, we would just be making monthly payments on them. So it would probably hit the 7 year mark before we finished paying on them. My other question is, what do you reccommend the best way of taking care of our more current debts (2 yrs or less in age)? Should we go through one of those debt consolidation type things, or try and do it ourselves. We are trying to obviously find the way that will create the fastest improvement of our credit rating so we can move on with our lives and put this all behind us.All suggestions are appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted January 20, 2005 Report Share Posted January 20, 2005 First of all...avoid ALL debt counselors / debt consolidation places. They are all scams, and will leave you in worse shape than you are now. Read all the posts about the horror stories from these people...Second, debts that are at 5+ years may be close to the SOL for your state. Check into that. If they're uncollectable, and will fall off your credit report in a couple years, there's no good reason to worry about them.Current debts fall into two categories...1. Those that are still with the OC, call and see if you can work out a plan with them. Don't agree to anything over the phone...get it all in wrtiing. If they won't agree to mark your credit report "Paid as agreed" and remove all late references, the positive impace on your CR is questionable. If you're left with negative entries, you might as well not pay.2. For those that have been charged off, sold to other creditors, or turned over to collection agencies...go through the DV process before you decide anything. If the CA can't prove the debt is yours, there's no reason to deal with them...you don't owe them anything to begin with, and a "Paid collection" is just as bad as an open one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momof5 Posted January 20, 2005 Report Share Posted January 20, 2005 First, what state are you in?If the accounts are outside SOL, this is a good thing. After 5 yrs, most CCs will have rolled your account info off their system onto tape and that tape, having sat in the computer room for a time will have been sent to an outside storage facility. They cannot verify in the 30 days! You start with "not mine" to get it deleted.Unless you feel a moral obligation to pay these debts, I would not waste money paying these.Unless you have a mortgage, chances are your credit is shot and you cannot get a consolidation loan. I would recommend that you start with getting your credit reports first. I would focus on the newer debts. After validation, IF they properly validate, I would submit a PFD and negotiate a payment AND get the agreement in WRITING before paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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