Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: 20 year old college collection debt

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Re: 20 year old college collection debt

Assuming that they have your correct address, the best thing to do is probably nothing.

In most States, it is probably advantageous for a creditor to NOT know where you live.

However, in Virginia, there is a danger of someone suing you at an old address, and you won't know that you are being sued. Under Virginia's rules, it is better to know you are being sued and to contest it than to risk a default judgment.

If you do nothing, they will keep bugging you.

If you respond, they will keep bugging you anyway.

Either way, they will bug you.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides this procedure for you to notify a collection agency within 30 days if you dispute the claimed debt.

However, after 11 years of debt collection, including working for one of the oldest debt collection law firms in the DC area, I have yet to discover ANY meaning whatsoever to this procedure. It is clearly written into the law. But the law does not specify any EFFECT one way or the other, and the courts will not care whether you did or did not file this dispute.

If you send your dispute to the collection agency, it will have absolutely no effect. If you don't send your dispute to the collection agency, it will have absolutely no effect.

There is a slight danger that you could say something in your letter of dispute that could admit something and be used against you.

It is probably best for you to write an extremely short, simple letter saying "I dispute the debt. The debt you claim is 20 years old and barred by the statute of limitations. And I do not want you to contact me any more about this matter."

If you really have nothing else to do in life, you could sue them for violating the FDCPA. But no such lawsuit is simple or easy. It is a bit like having heart surgery if you don't actually need it.