I'm looking for more information on Florida's Statute of Limitations for debt collection. How long is it really? I have a debt that has not been touched since 1998, so as far as I understand, it should no longer show on my credit report no matter what as of 2002? (I also was not absent from the state for any of the four year period and in fact for longer than that)does this sound about right, and can I do something to keep people from calling me based on this statute?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hello pixie:

If you owe the debt, you owe it forever. The statute of limitations for Florida, whatever it is, only limits the time the creditor can SUE you. It does not eliminate the debt. Theoretically, if the creditor doesn't want to sue you, he can hassle you about it forever.

UNLESS you take advantage of a provision in the "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" of 1968. You can write a letter to the creditor and simply demand that they stop contacting you. Send your letter certified, return receipt requested.

If there's no activity on an account, the same law says that negative items can no longer be reported after seven years. Ok, that's the way it SHOULD be. In the real world, it isn't that way.

Simply challenge the negative remarks. The bureaus are required to reinvestigate and if they can't verify the debt within 30 days, they must remove it.

excon

Credit records generally go back 10 years. I'm not sure how long a creditor has to collect on a bad debt. I would think that once collection procedures have been initiated (provided they were initiated within the statute of limitations) the collection process could potentially occur indefinitely.