enV or gift card?!?

by puck90

hi i need to have a decision made by today which is Saturday lol…for Christmas I can either get the LG enV or I could get a best buys gift card of…I THIKNK…i didnt ask…100 dollars…hmmmmmmm… so I dont know what to choose . The catch for the new cellphone is that i dont get another cell phone until 2010!!! THATS TWO YEARS!!!!! ahhhhh! ! ! lol so i dcont know what to choose so please please PLEASE help me and of course

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Answer by Johnathon A
If it where me, I would get the gift card

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Several years ago I bit off more than I could chew and had 3 major credit cards(Discover, Cap1 and MBNA) To make a long story short, they were all charged off about 5 years ago. I was going through a rough patch in my life and accrued some other miscellaneous debts like a $ 1000 cell phone bill and a couple of utility bills, which were charged off as well.

I looked at my credit score and report today and have roughly a 520 score from all 3 bureaus. With the Discover card, it is still reporting as of Jan 2010 and has about a 9k balance. They filed a judgment against me in 5/2007. Capital One and MBNA are basically the same story with charged off balances of 8k and 4k respectively and are still reporting.

On the positive side, I have several accounts that were paid as agreed in the past, other credit cards, car loans, etc. Never a home owner. I currently have a secured credit card with a 200 limit that I use here and there, never late on and I just got an unsecured credit card from HSBC with a 300 limit which I will do the same with.

My questions are:

How long are these creditors(the charged off accounts) going to keep reporting?
As long as I have these delinquent accounts, am I doing myself any good by getting new credit established with these new small limit cards or will the charge offs overshadow the good things I am currently trying to do?

I am not able to pay these charged off accounts off and probably plan to never do so unless I come upon a large sum of money. I have considered filing bankruptcy just to clean the slate and start over. What would be my quickest and best course of action for getting good credit?

Answer by knowitall
Wait 7 years from the last transaction date and it will drop off your report.

Answer by The Debt Eliminator
wait a few years until they can be deleted from your credit.

Answer by CatDad
Nope….don’t file for Chapter 7 to “clean” your credit…it won’t…it will damage your credit further.
- You get a clean slate on your credit report after 7 years from the original date that you defaulted…NOT the date of the last payment/transaction. If these charge-off are 5 years old, just sit tight and let them fall off naturally in 2 more years. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 7 years total is the max. amount of time that you can be punished for a default like a charge-off.
- You were very lucking that CapitalOne and MBNA walked away from $ 12K in defaults without taking you to court. I normally advise people to apply for secured credit cards to help established a new history of making on-time payments…I would not in your case. Collection agencies monitor credit files and they will get access to any new contact information that you provide if you apply for new credit. This could end up triggering collection activity
- My advise: Sit tight and don’t stir up trouble for yourself…the passing of time will heal the damage to your credit
———————-
There is a statute of limitations for credit card debt, which is the amount of time that they can successfully take legal action against you for the debt. This time period varies for each state. You can find this time period for your state by going to the link below and looking under “Open Accounts.”
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml
If the number of years since you defaulted on this account and stopped making payments on it is greater than the number listed for your state, then they can no longer defeat you in any court action because the debt is time-barred and you don't have to pay it back.

Answer by Natcharee
I have 2 blog that gave u information about bad credit:

Answer by Janey
First of all.. you mention Discover has a judgement against you. You say Capital One and MBNA are same story with charged off but you don’t mention if there was an judgement? It sounds as if you are saying you only have 1 judgment? I’m surprised the other two don’t have judgments if that is the case, because those are high amounts to avoid a judgment.

Here is what I would do:

1-Check your states Statute of Limitations (SOL). Most states have a limit on credit card debt being legally collectible of 3 or 4 yrs. Some, however, are longer. Make sure your states laws show your debt as past the SOL. If your debts are 5 yrs old (from last activity or charge off-not how old they were open) and your states SOL is 3 yrs then you are clear. You are under no obligation to pay. They can still try to come after you and sue but all you need to do is let them know you are aware the SOL has past and the debt is legally non collectible. If they still proceed to sue you, show up at court and show the judge the SOL and they will dismiss the case. Check here: http://www.comebackcredit.com/statute-of-limitations-on-debts/ This site also has great info on increasing your credit score, credit disputes etc.

2-If your debt is past the SOL, I would try to dispute the two that do not have judgments. When debts are this old (5 yrs) and charged off, the lender doesn’t always even bother to verify the debt. If you are successful at even getting one off, that will help. Plus you mentioned you have other small misc. bills. I would dispute them all. Just use something like ‘wrong amount’ ‘not my account’ ‘was not past due on xyz date’.

3-I would leave the judgment alone. Many people are very successful at getting them removed but you don’t want to wake a sleeping dog and have them start coming after you. I don’t think it is worth it.

4-If you are still in the SOL do NOT dispute any of them. Stay quiet and wait for the time to pass.

5-Your two credit cards are helping you. Even if the rest is bad, they are at least minimizing the damage. Keep balances under 30%. Never pay late.

6-Charged off accounts are only on your report for 7 yrs from last activity. Sometimes this is from your last payment, other times it is from charge off. charge off usually happens in 6 mnths after last payment. So if your debts are 5 yrs old from last activity, you only have 2 more years of them showing and that is if you don’t get them disputed off sooner (again don’t even try to dispute until they are out of SOL)

7-As far as bankruptcy. I wouldn’t do it. Your debts are old and will be off in max 2 yrs. Judgments can be renewed but they can’t report it on your credit report again. After 7-10 yrs, whatever you state allows, the judgments will be removed from your credit report-even if they renew it in court.

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