What to Do When a Debt Collector Contacts You About an Old Debt?

Here's an email exchange I believe should be helpful to a lot of you out there. This is a situation where a debt collector contacts a consumer after serving a summons on the consumer for a very old debt, one likely past the statute of limitations. As with all business dealings, DON'T PAY ANYTHING UNLESS AND UNTIL THEY SHOW YOU THE PAPERWORK TO PROVE THAT THE DEBT IS WITHIN THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS, AS WELL AS THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF THE DEBT!!!!! Can I repeat that often enough? Probably not. Here's the email exchange and hope it helps you out. Thanks for reading.

[Email to Bob Brennan] "I incurred the debt some years ago and my original thought was that it was past the statute of limitations regarding collection of credit card debt (which I understand to be 4 years in California) but when I looked at my credit report it then seemed that they might have beat the 4 year period by about a month. I did a bit of looking and could not find anything concrete that showed that the debt had been delinquent for more than 4 years, so I decided to call the law office listed on my summons today to see if we could work something out that was a bit more reasonable than the amount they stated on the summons (which is 4600 dollars or so which to me seemed kind of ridiculous to me seeing as my original limit on the card was 2200). The guy I got on the phone said that the amount we were looking at now was actually 6600 because the law office was involved and the best settlement he could come up with was roughly 3600 if I agreed and could pay 1/3 of that today, and then the rest over the next 2 months, which I can't swing at the moment. The other option from him was to start smaller payments today on the total 6600 to avoid going to court. He also told me that today might be the last day this is on the table since it was the last day of the month today, I am not sure how much of that was to try to scare me into making a bad decision or what. That did not seem all that reasonable to me, so I thought I might want to get in touch with a lawyer who specializes in this type of thing since I don't think I am going to be able to make any progress on my own, or even figure out what I need to send back to the courts within the thirty day window I have. I have one or two other places I plan to look to try to find an old statement from the CC company that would show it was delinquent before they are saying it was, but I am not overly optimistic about finding something (sadly I was/am young and not so great with paperwork...)."

[Bob Brennan's response] "Doesn't sound to me like you've got anything to lose by fighting it in court. Debt collectors always try to get you to pay TODAY, but if they don't have the paperwork to back up the claim, then don't pay them and roll the dice in court. No guarantees but you may find yourself doing better or even getting the case dismissed on statute of limitations grounds. Contend statute of limitations at the trial and state that your best recollection is that the debt is well over 4 yrs. old, you have requested the back-up paperwork on the debt and the debt collector has not provided it to you. The 4 yrs. would begin to run on the date of first delinquency-you can also contact the original creditor and try to get the info from them.

Just my thoughts but I would not let them Shanghai you if they cannot provide you with the paperwork to back up their inflated claim. Where do they get the $6600 anyway? Is it in the contract? Make 'em prove it! It's probably a bunch of bunkum just designed only to line the pockets of the debt collector."