Reader mail: American Agencies collecting OLD debt with expired SOL
Hello,
First off I would like to say thank you for creating a web page that has the info we need to defend ourselves against unlawful collections.
Upon a google search I came across this page: http://american-agencies-complaints.us/
Though I am not totally grasping every aspect of your directions and advice I am extremely interested in it. I just received a phone call from American Agencies in regards to a collection for Pacific Bell. The phone number and address are correct in regards to a previous address that I resided in, but I did not live there during the time they claim the collection is for. I have no recollection of ever having a phone number under my name at any address that I have resided so this is easy for me to think about. I was only 18 at the time and lived in a different city. The phone was under my room mates name at that address. The number in question was under my parents name at the address claimed. My other problem is that I would think that this collection falls under the statue of limitations here in California. They are collecting for Oct 98 – Mar 99, almost 10 years ago.
Please respond as I am looking for some serious advice on this subject.
Thank you,
Good news, it’s a NON problem.
The SOL in California expired years ago and the account became delinquent over 7 years ago, so it can’t legally be reported to the credit bureaus. You might want to check your reports to see whether they report it anyway and for this purpose, any cheap/free tri-merged report like http://www.privacyguard.com/ will do. The tri-mergeds are only good to determine whether something’s on the credit as they do not contain the most IMPORTANT data.
Since American Agencies had the nerve to CALL on this account, you should send a cease and desist letter, advising that they are not to contact you again. If they report, dispute with the CRAs (factually, as re-aged) and request deletion in the cease and desist letter.
I sure wish I had the time/money to update all these old websites, not enough hours in my day. I should probably just shut them down, a lot happened in the last 5 years and my advice changed accordingly. So for more tetails, please subscribe to CreditFactors.
Posted by Christine on 04/29/2008 at 03:03 PM
2003 Suit (appealed, Experian filed credit reports on PACER) • American Agencies - scummy collectors • Reader mail • (0) Comments • Permalink
