Perhaps “Statute of Limitations” is not the right term to use but you’ll see what I am on about.
I went to buy a new cell phone and sign-up with Cingular as my contract with Sprint is over. While going through the process the guy at the Cingular store told me I had an existing debt with Congular. This was odd I thought as I have never done any business with Cingular. Looking into it further he tells me the debt is from 1994 for $600. My jaw hit the floor…I did not even own my first cell phone till the year 2000 not to mention I am pretty sure Cingular didn;t even exist as a company then. Thinking I was the victim of some sort of fraud we check further still and they have an old address of mine from that time that the debt is listed to so they decide it is not fraud.
Granted back then I had some debt issues…nothing grand…just stupid kid out of college overextending himself. I spent years getting my record clean and to my knowledge paid every debt off…sometimes bill collectors got me or I managed to work it through with whatever company. I have long since thought that was all behind me only to find I have a $600 debt from 11 years ago haunting me?
My question is can a company (or whoever) chase after an outstanding debt forever or is there some legal limit to this? FWIW Cingular told me they have long since written off the debt. Just lucky for them I guess that I came onto their radar again of my own accord. They also said the debt was with another company Cingular bought which is how it is their problem now.
My problem is even if the debt is legitimate there is no way I can tell. I do not have any records from 11 years ago regarding this (my financial records do not go back that far). I have no way to prove one way or another what might have been done back then. I am shocked a company let me slide on a $600 bill without chasing me down. Positively every other one I can think of managed to get to me one way or another.
I am involved in something almost identical, I hope the op doesn’t mind me hitching a ride. The $700 I owe started out as $35 and has swollen due to their own late fees, penalties and usurious interest rates so I assume it’s the same with the op. If we are liable, would it be for the full amount they claim?
Are they demanding that you pay the debt, or are they simply saying that because of this bad history they decline to take you as a customer?
If it’s the former, you may have some legal ground to stand on, but there are others on this board who are better grounded in consumer debt issues. If it’s the latter case, you’re probably SOL.
Thanks…I Googled it and found Illinois is 5 years for oral and 10 years for written. For deevee and anyone else interested I found that info here (usual disclaimer that IANAL and you should find one rather than take legal advice from me, this board, etc., etc.).
I appreciate that they can refuse to do future business with me. Nothing wrong with that although it seems silly for them to do that. The debt was incurred with another company Cingular bought, it is 11 years old, I am older and with better credit than I was then and have a significantly better paying job and assets they can target these days. I am not one to bail on a debt generally but man…it is something to be told you owe $600 out-of-the-blue from 11 years earlier. One thing is for certain…I do not need an account with Cingular badly enough to pay $600 for the privilege. From my perspective they stand to make money off of me from here on out if they’d just let it pass (they did say they had long since written it off…can’t believe I am still in their database…for a debt from another company no less). Up to them I guess…
She said that it will expire but that you should make absolutely no payments to them no matter how small because it will then mark as an activity on the account and the limitations will start again from that date.
So if you owed them $600 nine years ago and the limitations is ten years, and somehow they convince you to send in $10, the ten years start over again from that point.
Thanks…I Googled it and found Illinois is 5 years for oral and 10 years for written. For deevee and anyone else interested I found that info here (usual disclaimer that IANAL and you should find one rather than take legal advice from me, this board, etc., etc.).
I appreciate that they can refuse to do future business with me. Nothing wrong with that although it seems silly for them to do that. The debt was incurred with another company Cingular bought, it is 11 years old, I am older and with better credit than I was then and have a significantly better paying job and assets they can target these days. I am not one to bail on a debt generally but man…it is something to be told you owe $600 out-of-the-blue from 11 years earlier. One thing is for certain…I do not need an account with Cingular badly enough to pay $600 for the privilege. From my perspective they stand to make money off of me from here on out if they’d just let it pass (they did say they had long since written it off…can’t believe I am still in their database…for a debt from another company no less). Up to them I guess…
A debt can only be on your credit report for 7 years. Do note, that sometimes unscupulous Collection agencies will “erroneously” change the date on the debt, making it much newer. Sometimes, even with completely honest companies- some activity (like paying off a 6yo debat) will cause their system to "re-set’ the date also.
In both cases, these can usually be fixed by a “dispute”. In some cases, i found i had to dispute the same debt over and over and over again, as the Credit reporting agency would research it, find out it wasn’t legit, take it off- then next month the old company would re-report it, causing me to dispute, research, remove, then it’d show back up again… :mad:
Disclaimer: I work for a phone company, but your policies and statutes may vary, etc.
When I set up a new account part of the routine is checking for old accounts, whether they belonged to my company or a company we bought territory from. When we buy new territory, we buy the bad debt accounts to, for a prorated amount, and make reasonable efforts to collect on the investment. If you owe, you cannot have any new service until the account is paid, and we employ a collection agency to follow up, but they only seriously go after big debt. It depends a lot on the amount. An account worth $50 will sit untouched for years, because who cares? It’s not worth the time and effort. Anything over about a thousand will have your phone ringing constantly with a team of highly trained Collections Asshats breathing down your neck about money most of our customers don’t have and we can’t really make them pay anyway. Also, if we can’t prove it’s yours, or if you can show that it reasonably may have been someone else’s, we have no choice but to let it slide. So if we have a name but no social security number, or you can produce utility bills from another address during the time the debt was incurred, you’re pretty much off the hook. I don’t work in the collections department, and I’m certainly no legal help, and this may not help much, but can they really show it’s your debt?