Two Questions...

[Sorento]

First time poster here, thank you for the forum to ask these questions..

1. I have been contacted by a Collection Agency regarding a debt from Nextel/Sprint from nearly 10 years ago, is there anything I can do to fight this?? This just came out of no where!

2. I recently took a settlement on a Repossession, made 16K of debt disappear for $5,500! Will the settlement do anything to improve my credit or hurt it further?? Sucks that I get a 1099-C at the end of the year!

Thanks for any help ahead of time!

KK

[Hal Jordan]

I assume you live in a state with a statute of limitations less than 10 years. So the advice I'm giving is based off of that. Tell sprint/nextel to go fly a kite and to never bother you again. Then send them a full cease and desist letter (sample letters are all over this site and google). It's beyond the SOL so they can't sue you and win (as long as you show up and affirm beyond SOL as your defense). They can't report it to your credit reports either. So there is literally NOTHING they can do to you other than ask you to pay it. And once you send that C&D letter certified mail with return receipt they won't even be able to do that. You could sue them for $1000 for violating the FDCPA if they contact you after they receive that letter other than to tell you they are suing you or not suing you. They are only allowed to contact you one more time to tell you the definitive action they are going to take against you. In this case.. they can take no action so you probably won't ever hear from again.. And if you do you can start the process of going after a $1000.

But basically they are a Junk debt buyer. This is also called zombie debt and legally it can't effect you at all unless you pay it. So don't pay em a nickle and don't forget to send em a Cease and desist letter so they have to back off.

The second part of your question is yes and no. The settlement will change from "unpaid/repossesed" to "settled", "settled for less than owed" or if you're lucky just "paid". You should always negotiate removal if possible or a "paid" status instead of settled for less than on your CR. "unpaid" looks really bad but repossessed looks even worse so getting the status changed from repossesion to Settled will still be better for your score (by how much.. who knows?)and will also show the account as closed.