Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Yes Charge off means the bank took the debt off their accounting records. The debt can be sold and you can be sued for it, including interest and attorneys' fees if the credit card agreement says so. If you are sued more than four years after you defaulted (stopped paying), then you can defend yourself in court when you are sued by claiming that it is too late to sue you because of the statute of limitations. You specifically have to put that defense (called an affirmative defense) in the answer to the complaint if you are sued or you will waive that defense to the debt. I really doubt they will sue you for such an old debt for such a small amount but it can happen. Even if the holder of the debt does not sue you in time, the debt collection agency can keep that debt in your credit report and will continue to affect your credit I think for seven years. There may be exceptions to the four-year statute of limitations as when you are out of state during that four-year period and they can not find you even if they made reasonable efforts to locate you. Again, I doubt that they would sue you after four years, particularly for a small amount because that may violate consumer protection laws.