Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

Re: after the 4 year statute of limtation is over?

This can be a tricky area of law to discuss as there are so many permutations and twists and turns. I drect you to read up on this matter at some of the more educated sites on the web.

Generally in Pennsylvania debts are uncollectable after the 4 year statute, but that doesn't mean they go off you credit report. That takes 7 years pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The statue of limitations isn't tolled by simply by talking to a collector but only by calculating from 180 days after the most recent consecutive delinquency occurred. So if you made your last payment June 1, 2000, then the statute started running 180 days later (essentially when the debt is "written off"). From that time the statute runs. Unless you "catch up" the statute continues to runs, but you must be careful because the collectors have some tricky means of keeping a debt fresh. The four year statute rarely tolls once the four year statute starts running but the longer FCRA statute can be more easily forestalled through the use of collector's tricks.

Get a copy of your credit report and dispute those items that are obviously out of date or incorrect. You will need to support your contentions and you should do this via the mail as the online dispute programs are notoriously limited and ignored.

Also, you might consider hiring an attorney to help you.

Regards,

Roger Traversa

[email protected]