Know Statute Of Limitations On Credit Card Debts
Statue of limitations is a term used to refer to a period of time after which your creditors can not sue you to acquire the money you owe them. This time period is calculated from the date of your last payment, or when you last made use of your credit card. Although morally you would still be in their debt you have no legal obligation to pay them your debt. However it might have an adverse effect on your credit score if you do not clear your debts that you taken from your creditors. Different states have different statue of limitations on credit card debts.
Regardless of the existence of the law that put a legal stop on lenders from pursuing borrowers once the particular duration has passed, there are several lenders who aggressively go after the borrowers who have not clear their dues. In the last few there can be seen a rising trend of forceful debt collectors who purchase old debt accounts and chase after the borrowers in the hope of acquiring payment out of them. These creditors can be very harassing and some of them do not stop at lying about the starting date of the statue of limitations, making false promises or may even threaten to take you to court to get their money back. This is a clear breach of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
There are many borrowers who are not aware of their legal rights and fall pray to the schemes of the collectors. To avoid being one of them you should make sure of the date of expiry of the statute of limitations and stop making any payment towards your debt. Any Payment that you make after the expiry date would show recent activity in your delinquent account status. This could possibly renew the legal status of your creditors thereby enabling them to get money from you. It would make you an easy target for the lenders. It is advisable to take legal help when faced with such a predicament.
You should also make an effort to check that the information stated in your credit report about your financial past record is precise and true. Every now and then it happens that debt collectors put wrong information about your payments towards your debts. You must correct those mistakes so that your credit report would not reflect badly on you. If you are absolutely sure that you are past the date of statue of limitations you should try to avoid any contact from your debt collector agency. If they still keep harassing you with mails you should keeps those mails as an evidence of their harassment. You should be aware that it has been stated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that the collectors must follow certain rules and policies while making an effort to collect old debt. To know about these rules that are made for the benefit of the borrowers you can check out websites that provide complete information on them.