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look for big bhn news soon

dumb question skottey.........if you never had any intention of paying, what was the point of having the credit cards......other than to rip the people off?

and, speaking as someone who has really bad credit, i'm not sure your comment about unpaid credit card debts coming off your credit report in seven years is totally true. i have consulted with several bankruptcy attorneys and this is what i believe the 7 year rule is.............after 7 years, a creitor can no longer hound you or take legal action if the debt isn't paid. but it is still reflected on your credit report.....just not as an active debt.
 

I wasn't trying to rip anybody off. I honestly didn't even think about payments. This is common amongst our young in America. Most of us are not taught the seriousness about credit cards, credit, and money. Once you realize how serious it is, even though it is a horrible GAME, most people tend to do the right thing and clean it up. I am now 32 and have good credit. I am not saying what I did was a good thing to do. I just brought it up on the subject of credit. I wouldn't do it again. In the long run with a lower credit score you certainly pay for it with higher interest rates and being turned down for things like a cell phone without a deposit. I am ashamed of this and it is in my past. Unfortunately, it is all too common in America. I was not alone.
 
jcarrera said:
I think a "fair trade" would have been you paying for what you bought. That's fair.
Click to expand...

Would you open the safe if you knew the robber was going to kill you either way?

I paid it or I didn't, they refused to take it off my credit either way. It fell off eventually no matter what.
 

Forgot to address your second part. Bad things fall off after 7 years and good things will stay 10 or more. Negative court judgments or faulty student loans can stay for 10 years. The seven years CAN be reset only under certain circumstances, such as (occasionally), you dispute the debt and it is re-validated. In fact, one or two of the bureaus now post the month and year of when your bad items will fall off. This is a fact. Believe me, I have lived it myself. I no longer have anything negative. Other than the few things I paid, everything else has FALLEN off after seven years.

www.annualcreditreport.com gives you your fee credit report from each of the 3 bureaus once a year. Personally I get one every 4 months from one of the bureaus, leaving a year between the same one, and only 3 months between getting one.

Regarding them contacting you, all you have to do is send a letter like the following and they can't legally contact you again. I have done it and it works. Yes, they can sell the debt and you have to resend the letter but it will stop you from being hounded.....

"To: Collection agency name here
xxxxx
xxxxx

From: Scott xxxx
xxxxxx
St. Petersburg, FL 33703

Re: Acct# xxxxx




To Whom It May Concern:

Yesterday I received a collection notice from your organization. This bill for $3172.26 is not my debt. You asked that I pay this “debt.” My answer is NO!

I ask that you cease further communications with me as per The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (see below). I refuse to pay this “debt.” Go ahead and send me acknowledgement that you will cease communications with me in one, and only one letter. Have a great day.


Thank you,


Scott xxxxx



THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT
1040208, 110 Stat. 3009 (Sept. 30, 1996)

S 805 (c) CEASING COMMUNICATION. If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt.



"
 
skottey said:
Forgot to address your second part. Bad things fall off after 7 years and good things will stay 10 or more. Negative court judgments or faulty student loans can stay for 10 years.
"
Click to expand...

Thinking more about it, they did change some of the laws recently (last year?) making bankruptcy harder and some other adjustments in the favor of creditors. For all I know, NEW DEBT since the change in the laws no longer falls off, but I know for a fact that debt in the 1990s or older falls off after seven years. I guess those with bad debt nowadays may be SOL if what the bankruptcy attorney told you is true. They really need to educate today's youth.
 
"Would you open the safe if you knew the robber was going to kill you either way?"

Characterizing multiple people from whom you bought stuff as 'robber' is a strange twist. If there is a robber here, it isn't the people who sold you the stuff.
 
jcarrera said:
"Would you open the safe if you knew the robber was going to kill you either way?"

Characterizing multiple people from whom you bought stuff as 'robber' is a strange twist. If there is a robber here, it isn't the people who sold you the stuff.
Click to expand...

The analogy is that in both scenerios, the outcome is the same no matter what you do. If you take the high road or the low road, you are getting nailed by the avalanche either way. I pay the bill and they leave it on my credit, only to have it fall off after 7 years OR I don't pay the bill and get the same result. Both sides need to give a little. Where is the incentive to pay it if they won't take it off my credit report. Sears agreed to remove it from my credit if I made payment. Fair trade. They offered to accept half. I would have paid the full amount had they asked for it as LONG AS THEY AGREED TO REMOVE THE NEGATIVE entry on my credit file. The other two companies refused to budge.

The creditors are no angels either and are in the news right now for being part of the problem by changing interest rates on a whim, changing terms of service, overextending credit and charging ridiculous late fees. Also, not all negative entries are accurate. Believe it or not I had an apartment manager sign off on keeping my security deposit and we were even Steven when I finished my lease. Then they turned around and came after me for more money. It ended up on my credit report even though I had it in writing that I was free and clear on the apartment. This kind of BS is why I call it a "game." The game of credit. Both sides cheat and steal.
 

thanks for the clarification. it was like 1999 when i consulted a few bankruptcy attorneys as i had dug myself a really deep hole. i recall comments about the 7-year rule but i didn't recall specifics.

i will also tell you this too. when my va disability rating was increased in june there was a bit of info in their letter that caught my eye. it said va disability compensation was exempt from creditors. a friend of mine from church who was a CPA and a former IRS agent told me the IRS couldn't touch any type of government disability income. but this was the first time i actually saw it printed on VA letterhead.

truthfully, i couldn't afford bankruptcy then and i can't afford it now. but enough time has passed since i defaulted on my credit cards for anyone to do anything......like 11 or 12 years.
 
Right now the current rules for credit reports and collection accounts is as follows. From the point a debt reaches 120 days past due (it doesn't have to be sent to a collection agency) is when the seven years "starts" for credit.

Most states also have a statue of limitations for how long a company has to collect the debt. In my old state of Florida after four years has passed from the date the debt was 120 days past due no company nor collection company can sue you "and" win. They can still sue you but it will be thrown out of court if the SOL has passed.

Beyond the above if you do "nothing" the debt will fall off your credit report after seven years from the date it was 120 days past due. The "only" thing you cannot do is say you own the debt (collection company records call), show any type of good faith to pay, start monthly payments or even pay in full. The reason for this is because once you do one of the things above the debt can be aged again which means the SOL starts over along with the seven years starting over.

Also if you do pay a debt off fully via a deal make sure you have it in writing that they will take it off your credit report. Remember that paying the debt doesn't require them to remove it from your credit report and even worse without having this in writing they can re-age the debt so your credit report will get worse. It will show a brand new debt that will roll off in seven years if you can believe that.

Now beyond the above if you contest the debt with the credit bureaus and/or they validate the debt it is against the law for the debt to be re-aged from this. Simply put a debt can only be re-aged by showing a good faith to pay or by making any type of payment. This is why its best to never talk with any collection person to not take the chance they will re-age your debt. Also I believe many states require any re-aging to have proof of payment and/or a recorded copy of the conversation that shows you made a good faith to pay the debt but not all states require this.

Now after the seven years are up it will be taken off your credit report and no company can legally require you to pay that money "but" that doesn't mean you still don't owe it. Even after seven years if you attempt to pay that debt the SOL and seven years starts all over again which means they can sue you "and" win a judgement as well. Just be careful in understanding how this game works because like another poster said this is without a doubt a game.

Beyond all the above information while your within that seven year period your score will very be these reasons below.

1. A medical debt doesn't hurt your score nearly as much as say a collection from a credit card.

2. The lower the debt owed results in less of a score drop. So if you had a collection from a credit card for 600 bucks that would not impact your score as much as having a credit card collection for 3,000 bucks.

3. And of course the older the debt is the less it impacts your score.

So for example a medical debt in the amount of 600 bucks that has been on your report for four years most likely won't even have an impact on your credit score.
 
Thanks for the additional information. I never really talked to the creditors much. I'd ask about making a deal and demand it in writing. It worked with Sears. I disputed a few things directly to the credit bureaus with mixed success on it getting taken off. It is always worth a dispute try early on but I recommend against adding a statement with an explanation to your report. Creditors look at the score and a written statement only sticks out, not affecting the score. If the creditor doesn't respond in a set amount of time to the credit bureaus verification after a dispute, it will come off. Fun stuff. Seriously it can be. People with money and a good score essentially become economic Gods.

 
btw, i have officially closed the saga of trying to get pivot from bhn. more than 3 weeks after paying off my old debt with sprint, they are still giving me and some of the bhn folks the royal runaround. i have contacted a central florida consumer affairs reporter i know. and i will be contacting one of the credit bureaus.

all i have heard from bhn is the problems they seem to be having. you would think this would have been worked out prior to a soft release!
 
Don't you get it yet? They don't care about you. They don't have enough people. The ones they do have know far too little about what they are doing (may I say the BHN field techs seem to be an exception; most of them seemed to be exceptionally knowledgeable....one or two didn't seem to care about really nailing the problem though; others were very thorough).

There are enough of us clamoring for their service/product that the ones they blow off are just noise to them. They would rather lose our business (assuming we have an alternative) than to take the time and effort to work on whatever our problem is.

I have to acknowledge that there are some people who are never satisfied with anything. Others never complain. Then there is the middle ground: I am demanding--if demanding is defined as expecting to get what you pay for.

LATER: Don't know what happened to the last paragraph I put in, which was essentially...

BTW, these comments are applicable to almost all large American businesses, not just BHN.
 
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i will say that i have had someone at bhn working as a go between. its just after i read the last email this morning when it sounded like sprint was screwing around, i said enough. funny, they wasted no time cancelling my work order.
 
Sorry for the off topic, but since we were talking about debts, what about student loans, are they the same as credit card company? If you don't pay, do they come after you harder or put you in jail?
 

Ive been saying for along time, their plans suck. The service will go no where. In my opinion. It will be a very big uphill battle if they dont change some things it will die by 08
 
neynme said:
Sorry for the off topic, but since we were talking about debts, what about student loans, are they the same as credit card company? If you don't pay, do they come after you harder or put you in jail?
Click to expand...

Well technically you cant goto jail for any debt. The only chance of that is a few reasons.

1. You lose a court battle the judge orders you to pay a certain amount and you default, thus making yourself "in Contempt of court"

2. You owe the IRS money and they will rip you a new one.

3. You wrote a bad check which in somes states like (florida) any check over 500$ is a felony.

Student loans also if im not mistaken like medical records do not affect your "credit score" But I could be wrong on that
 
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