Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: Clearing old bad credit

The statute of limitation in California for breach of a written contract (which is what a credit card debt is) is 4 years from the date of the breach. Determining when the date of breach occurred is the tricky part. If you have not made any payments for 10 years, the credit card companies would never be able to obtain a judgment if they sued you now. To find out if any judgments have been entered againt you, get copies of your credit reports from the three major credit reporting bureaus. If a judgment has been entered against you, it should show up on at least one of those reports.

If you have never been sued, and no judgment exist, derrogatory credit concerning those unpaid credit card debts will remain on your reports for 7 years, at which time they should automatically be removed for most purposes.

Re: Clearing old bad credit

The statute of limitations is generally four years, so these would be past it. However, if within four years of the debt being due they sued you and obtained a judgment, the judgment is valid for 10 years and can be renewed for another 10. If a judgment was obtained, it should appear on your credit report.