I just received a letter yesterday, 5/15/2007, about a credit card that I had forgotten about. I opened it in 1999 when I was going through a divorce. The debt has now been sold to another company for collection. The last time I used the card was September 1999. I checked my credit report, and the company 'charged off' a portion of the account, but the charge off is dated 5/2005. Can they charge off the acount after 6 years, and which date would apply for statute of limitations for Idaho?

Sure they can. A charge off simply means that they are taking a loss against their taxes. So they chose that year to do so. Should affect the SOL. Probably charged it off because the SOL expired.

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Originally Posted by jdmschlu

I just received a letter yesterday, 5/15/2007, about a credit card that I had forgotten about. I opened it in 1999 when I was going through a divorce. The debt has now been sold to another company for collection. The last time I used the card was September 1999. I checked my credit report, and the company 'charged off' a portion of the account, but the charge off is dated 5/2005. Can they charge off the acount after 6 years, and which date would apply for statute of limitations for Idaho?

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In NJ the SOL begins when the CC Agreement is breached (when the cause of action accrues). In other words, if your last payment was made on 5/5/99, assuming the next payment with any grace period was due 7/1/99, the CC Agreement would be breached when you missed the 7/1/99 payment. However, any subsequent payments or agreements (i.e. repayment plans w/ reduced interest) made within the SOL period will effectively erase the original breach date and the new breach date will be the last payment or the breach of the subsequent agreement.

Basically the SOL is calculated from the date of your last missed payment. So if you made a payment in 2001 (depending the number of years for the SOL in your state) then the statute possibly hasn't expired yet.

Even if it has expired the collection agency is still allowed to try and collect the money, the amount you owe never disapears unless you go bankrupt.

FYI, charge-offs are often viewed by creditors as worse than bankruptcies inasmuch as although the debt is discharged in both cases (sold in your case), a person can generally only file bankruptcy once every 7 years.