Wait until of of SOL or dispute now?

[voncreutz]

I have three credit cards, a redeemed repossesion and a couple of utility bills that have gone to collection. One of them seem to be 6 months short of being out of SOL. The others probably have a year left on them before they are out of SOL.

My question is: Should I wait for these negative remarks to be out of SOL before I dispute them, or should I take my chances and dispute them even though I risk being sued?

I'm not planning any big purchases within the next 12 months, but I still want to actively work on repairing my credit score. I recently got financed for a car and have applied for a secured credit card in order to start building positive credit history.

Thankful for any advice on this

[Scorepro]

I would most certainly wait on the 6 month one. How much is that particular debt for? Not to say that it doesn't happen because we know it does, but generally speaking, creditors usually only sue when the debt is significant. So, taking the amount of the debt into consideration can help assess the liklihood of whether you'd be sued or not. Either way, there are no guarantees and you'd be proceeding @ ur own risk. Waiting 6 months is much easier than having to later deal with getting a judgment off ur report.

For the ones that are nearly a year away from SOL, again, I would assess the risk based on the debt amount.

[voncreutz]

The original amount on the 6 month one is $320, but the CA is reporting it as $749 now. Sounds like a lot of interesst in les than 4 years.

The other have an original amount of $230, but the CA is asking for over $800 now.

[Scorepro]

This is just my opinion but, I don't think a creditor will sue for those amounts. There are costs involved for them and many times the lawyers keep a large percentage. Not to mention that once they get the judgment then they have to actually collect on that judgment and that involves more fees and the person may or may not even be collectable. So, all that said, I just don't think it's likely.

[Trish]

I have been sued for under $1000..... I didn't think it would happen either..
I think the debt was around $700. So I would still proceed with caution.

If you do not have any intention of paying then wait until SOL is up...

Just my .02

[voncreutz]

If I do get sued, do I then have the option to pay instead of going to court over it?, and that way not get a judgement against me.

Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question, but I haven't been sued before so I'm not very familiar with the proceedings.

Would it be better to send a pay for delete letter in this case?

[Trish]

Yes, what happened to me is I was served the papers....... I knew it was a legit debt that I hadn't paid....
I called up the CA that filed the lawsuit and asked to make payment arrangements to keep it out of court and they agreed. They canceled the court date and once I had made the last payment, they gave me a letter stating it was paid in full.

If you are willing to pay, you could always try a PFD... BUT if it's not out of SOL yet, you won't have much bargaining power.......
A lot of times they will expect the full amount if they know they can turn around and sue you for the full amount. I'm not saying not to try........just be aware that they may react this way.

[Scorepro]

Well, as Trish illustrated, being sued for under $1000 can happen. You can certainly enter a payment arrangement if and when ur sued, but like Trish stated,you have less leverage when debt is still within SOL...however, while they don't have to grant a payment arrangement because they could turn around and sue you for the full amount, I can't think of any logical reason (not that CA's adhere to common sense or logic) why they would do that. Again, a judgement is only a piece of paper that entitles the creditor/CA to a set amount of $, but collecting on that judgement is the hardest part and there a no guarantee they will collect. That said, it is completely illogical to turn down a payment arrangement. R u considering a payment arrangement on the full amount or a lessor amount? Me personally, but for some rare cases, I would never pay the full amount. About 4 months ago, I negotiated a $28k debt to $4k. Yes, $4,000....And, got a payment arrangement for that $4000 over 4 months. How did I do that? Told them I was going to file bankruptcy and then they'd get $0. They did what by logical creditor would do and took what they could get when they could get it.

[voncreutz]

Well, I was going to offer less than the full amount due, but like said....I guess my negotiating power is somewhat crippled due to the fact that the debt isn't out of SOL yet.

I don't want to get sued if I can help it, but I don't feel like just waiting either, lol

I'm new to credit repair and after getting a lot of great advice on this forum, I think my biggest problem is to decide what strategy will work best for the different items on my report. Most of the collection items are small amounts, nothing over $1000, but the damage they do seem to be just as severe as if they would have been ten times as much.