Charge Offs

Question:
Could anyone tell me what your responsibility is to a creditor after they charge it off. I know the right thing to do is to pay it, but can they still pursue collection? What happens if I never pay it?

Answer:
Your obligation to pay a debt does not disappear when an item is "charged off", it simply means that the creditor has decided to write the debt off their books. This sometimes, but not always, means you won't be bothered anymore concerning this debt. Sometimes a creditor will charge off a debt on their books but assign it to someone else. Some companies specialize in buying charged off debts and trying to collect them later. What happens after a while is that your state's Statute of Limitations will kick in- a creditor must take legal action against you within a certain time frame....depending on where you live, this can usually be between 4-6 years. This clock usually starts ticking from when you made your last payment to them...so if you paid a debt last in 1990, you probably don't have to worry about anyone suing you over this debt anymore, as the time period has elapsed. Of course, as with all areas of the law, there are numerous exceptions that might apply to a particular situation. I filed for Ch 7 about a year ago. I checked my credit report, and one creditor shows a charge off date after my file date. The amount charged off is the total of all late fees and etc all the way down to my discharge date. I disputed the info with the reporting agency. They asked for a creditor list, and I gave them what I gave to my attny (and discharge papers). The reporting agency still says that it is a valid credit report item. Is there some federal form that they need to prove that it was a BR and not a charge off? On the federal court web site, I found the mailing label list that included the creditor, but nothing else I could really use as 'proof' to the credit report agency. Is this worth clearing up since they are unlikely to try and collect?





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