Paying Off Old Debt When Repairing Your Credit Can Hurt Your Credit Score
Paying the debt is also no guarantee that the nightmare will stop. The collector may decide that if youre willing to pay at all, you could be made to pay more. Settling a debt for a smaller amount than the collectors says you owe could result in another agency trying to collect the unpaid portion. Or the collector might inform the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that youve received income in the form of forgiven debt.
Even if you manage to wrangle written promises from the collector that none of the above will happen, you would have to be willing to go to court if the agency reneged — and possibly face an unsympathetic judge or one who doesnt know much about collections law.
If youre being contacted about an old debt, heres what consumer attorneys advise:
Know the statute of limitations. If you racked up a debt in another state, you might want to check the statute of limitations there as well. But generally, its the statute of your current state that applies. If the statute has expired, the collection agencies legal remedies are limited.
Know your rights. Credit and...
To view and download this full PLR article, you must be logged in. Registration is completely free. Once you create your account, you will be able to browse, search & downlod from our PLR articles database of over "1,57,897+" on 1,000's of niches and 200+ categories without paying a penny. Click here to signup...
