Expert: Kathleen Eads - 5/5/2006

Question
i have an old debt that has been owed befor 1995 and thought it was a charge off on my credit report.
about a year ago , the creditors started to call me about this debt.they said that they were a collection agency and aquired this account from the original people i had this debt with.
i asked them how did they get this and they said that they purchased it from them.
is this legal?
when i asked them how much they paid for it, they got really angry and would not tell me.
they said that that were registered with bbb and i could check them out. so i did and found that they had numerous complaints against them from debtors.
my question is,do they have the legal right to harrass me about this debt or is there a statute of limitations on debts .
thank you so much.


Answer
Lin,

Purchasing out of statute debts is very common in the industry and it is COMPLETELY legal.  Technically, a creditor (or agency who buys this debt) can attempt collections indefinitely; however, they only have so much time allotted by law in which they have actual legal recourse.  This is the statute of limitations.  

The statute varies from state to state and will depend on the type of debt in question.  I have included a link for your review:

http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-limitations.html

The agencies who purchase this debt are hoping to play into one's moral and ethical obligation to "do the right thing" and pay their outstanding bill.  Normally, debt purchases pay pennies on the dollar, and because of this, they are usually quite willing to settle for a compromised amount of the original debt.  They are completely within their rights to contact you about the debt; whether you decide to pay it is up to you.  

Hope you get this worked out!
Kathleen Crabtree