They only have 7 years to collect

I recently received a pre-recorded message from a company that told me I had an outstanding debt please press zero (0) to resolve this. This was not the first time that I had received this call, generally I would hang up, but that day something told me to find out who was this. So I pushed zero and waited for a representative to answer the phone. The next few words caught me off guard. Julie gave me the name of this company and said that it was a claim from 2001. What a minute you are calling me about a claim from 2001.

She said yes and how would I like to resolve cash or credit?

I ask Julie if she knew that calling me on a claim over 7 years old is against the law. Julie told me that she knew the law and I owed the money.

So I dropped a little knowledge on Julie and I explained that she was in violation of federal law and she and the company could be subject to fines and or jail sentences if they continue violate that law. Julie was a smart lady, she immediately went to get her supervisor. When I started speaking to Bob I realized that he did not know the law either. Of course his call was a ethical call, and most people want to pay their debt no matter how old they are! So I used something called informative information on him and went on to say "if I did not pay the debt in 2001 that I surely was not going to pay it 9 years later" . I asked Bob did he knows what happens after a person files bankruptcy, he said did I file bankruptcy on this case? I said no. The reason that I was asking is after 10 years a bankruptcy automatically drops off of your credit. He said "okay". Listen Bob the first and most important piece of information is, that after 7 years of no activity on any account positive or negative it automatically drops off a consumers credit report and that debt is forgiven.

Again Bob wanted to explain his logical reason why he called, again. This time I stopped him in the middle of his rational approach and asked him for his name and the company that he worked for. I explained to him in layman's terms what was going to happen if he continued on trying to justify why he called. That I would be forced to call an attorney and take it to the next level, and I promised that he would not like the results if I did!

Bob realized his error and apologize, he explained that my name would be removed from his calling list and that would never happen again.


Food for thought: A collector only has 7 years to collect any debt after that it is a forgiven debt and it automatically drops off of your credit!

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