A couple of days ago I received a letter from a collection agency saying that I owed Columbia House approx $170.00. I live in Nova Scotia. I have not had an account with them in at least 8 to 10 years and when I did it was at a different address and PO BOX. To the best of my knowledge I had paid and closed the account. The thing that is odd to me is that they have spelled my last name wrong but have my current PO BOX. If by some chance I did not pay what I owed them back then can they still collect now, what is the statue of limitations on something like this.
I have read complaints on other sites about the same collection agency going after people that have not had an account for 10 to 20 yrs, the people did not pay and now they have a bad credit report,
What is the proper way to handle this? I plan to notifiy the collection agency that I am disputing this and attempt to contact Columbia House to find out when these charges were suppose to have occurred and where items where sent. But from what I understand most people have not had much luck with this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated... Thank you

I would not pursue any correspondence or verbal discussion with the collection agency. They have 'bought' this for so many cents on the dollar and in all probability Collumbia House have already written it off,

It will cost them much more then $170 to take this to small claims court to try and get a judgment for it.

You will receive more letters and probably phone calls; all in an harassing manner. Don't fall for any of it. Ignore them.

In most provinces, including Nova Scotia, the statute of limitations on debts is six years. This does not mean that you do not owe the debt. Debts never go away. However, if the creditor was to take you to court and sue you, your defense could be that the Statute of Limitations has expired, and therefore they would be unable to obtain a judgment against you, making it very difficult for them to ever collect.

tick

But when I was in columbia house I had a different po box. If they have my current one then someone has opened this account in my name in the last 7 years, I don't want this to go on my credit report as I did not create this debt!

You will have to contact the collection agency, then to get it cleared up, if in fact it isn't your debt they are after. They are probably working from an old list that has been reworked probably many times. In that case, then, you may not be the one owing this debt. I don't know what else to suggest, other then, as I said, contact them. Ask questions.

If it turns out to be an old debt of my that I don't remember, can they put on your credit report (score) if it is more that 7 to 10 yrs old. Or its it already against me if a collections agency sent me a letter?