Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: credit card dept over 10 years old.

There are several things you can do. First find out if they have, in fact, reported something on your credit report. If so, you can write to the credit company and give them your side of the dispute, it may not give you everything you want, but every time someone accesses your credit report, your response must be sent as well. It's better than nothing and costs nothing. Your next move it to sue MWard for an injunction. A court order, ordering them to withdraw the comment on your credit report. You probably will need to retain counsel, and it will cost a considerable abount, however, it could give you everything you want.

Re: credit card dept over 10 years old.

Assuming the creditor is "Montgomery Wards" ("MWards" in your message) your inquiry is interesting, given that Montgomery Wards has now been out of business for over a year.

You should verify exactly who is attempting to collect this debt. In California the statute of limitations on a debt based upon contract (which is what a credit card debt is), at its longest, is four (4) years from the last breach. If your debt is ten (10) years old, it is barred by the statute of limitations, and any lawsuit brought to collect it would probably be dismissed.

If the creditor insist on reporting this to the major credit reporting agencies, you might want to let them know that if they do you will report them to the Federal Trade Commission, and possibly sue them based upon a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as well as other state and federal laws. Under the act it is illegal for a "collection agency" to threaten action it knows it cannot take to coerce the payment of a debt (i.e., the creditor will "freeze" your bank accounts, because in order to do this they need to sue you and obtain a judgment - if the statute of limitations has run such a lawsuit would be not be meritorious).

You can obtain more information from the Federal Trade Commission's web site at www.ftc.gov. Look under "consumer laws" or "consumer information."

Re: credit card dept over 10 years old.

You may have a claim against the collection agency. Do you have any letter or correspondence in writing? Is there a judgment against you?