Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Statute of Limitations/Identity Theft?

The statute of limitations for an ORAL contract is 3 years from the last charge on the account OR the last payment on the account whichever is later.

For a written contract, it is five years from the date of BREACH, that is the date that something should have been done that was not done. (Here, the last date that a payment was due and not paid.)

If you make any promise in writing to pay, that can restart the clock.

The argument could be made that a credit card comes under a written contract because you sign a written contract as an umbrella to open the contract. (The application alone often contains language in it that can be enough to be a binding contract.)

However, if you did not open this credit card account, they will not be able to produce your signature on any written contract, and probably not even if you did open the account.

Nevertheless, credit cards are usually treated as "open accounts" with a 3 year statute of limitations, probably because the credit card companies can never come up with the original contract.

Unfortunately, the credit bureau can report the debt for 7 years, even long after it is no longer enforceable in court.

The credit report is supposed to help creditors predict whether they should extend you credit. So even if the debt is not enforceable, they can still report it as INFORMATION useful for future creditors to consider in extending you credit.

Also, I heard on a consumer law radio show (have not yet checked this out myself) that creditors and collection agencies will try to "refresh" the date by issuing a new invoice and using the new invoice date to make it look like it is newer, and the radio host (a lawyer) claims that this is illegal. He says one can sue for this practice and win money from them. So keep an eye on that trick.

It is probably worth reporting this as identity theft, unless you are willing to wait several years for it to drop off your credit report.