I would like to know the answer too. Anyone here know what is the answer to your question. I'll do some research in Google and get back to you if I bump into an useful answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably know..

Your only income is government benefits?.

Most of these accounts are nearing the Statute of Limitations?.

It sounds like you'd like to pay them off, but doing so would present a financial hardship to your family..

My best advice, for what it's worth, is to do NOTHING..

If you file for bankruptcy, you will definitely have more years of bad credit. Why?.

What is the worst that could happen? You get sued?.

What will they get? They cannot garnish a government disability check. You are "judgement proof"..

Let them sit, do not make offers to pay. Let them fall off your report in 24 months. If they remain after 7 years, just dispute them with the CRA's as obsolete-past reporting time limit..

I may be waaaayy off base here, and I'm sure I'll be straightened out if I am, but I see nothing to gain by filing BK, or by living in poverty in order to pay it off. Nobody is going to go out of business because you didn't pay..

Get your health back, enjoy your children, use your extra money for that..

Your report will clear up in 24 months or less, by your own admission..

If they try to sue, remind them that you have absolutly NOTHING they can garnish..

If it gets really bad, you always have the option of BK at that time..

I'm not advocating that people not pay their obligations, but sometimes life gives us a lot to deal with, and we need to prioritize what's important..

Further reducing your quality of life benefits nobody..

Best wishes!.

Radi8..

I have to say that I agree with radi8 on this point. Sometimes, doing nothing is the best financial move to make. And I say this as one who believes strongly in paying obligations..

Since you are on permanent disability, you certainly should look into having your student loans completely forgiven (since these will not be allowed to be discharged in a bankruptcy)..

My mother had her student loans from Sallie Mae discharged for a chronic and possibly fatal illness...

I agree with radi8 on this one. It sounds like filing for BK would a stupid thing to do in your situtation. If your only income is disability, then you are judgement proof. Your creditors can't touch you..

The only reas reason to file for BK is if you are getting sued or at risk for being sued for large sums of money. Otherwise, avoid it at all costs. If you are going to be more or less clear after two more years, then filing for BK will only give you 10 more years of bad credit. Just because you file for BK, your current derogatories will not be erased. They will simply change to "included in BK" which isn't much better..

My advice is also to just sit tight and use your money for yourself and your children..

To answer your question, your accounts can't be reported beyond seven years (either date of chargeoff or date of last payment that led to chargeoff depending on when it occurred). If your creditors try to reage the accounts, you can go after them and the CRA's and they will delete..

KEEP COPIES OF ALL OF YOUR CREDIT REPORTS! This will give you the proof you may need later if they try to reage on you. That is illegal and you could sue them for it..

In the meantime, you should familiarize yourself with the first three or four posts of the board to learn what you can do to begin repairing your credit. There is no reason you need to wait for two more years to get it fixed. It is possible, using the techniques you will learn here, to fix your reports within the year, maybe even sooner..

Nothing is a lost cause, we will help you through it..

I definitely don't think you should declare BK though!..

I wanted to thank each and every one of you. I did learn a lot just from these posts. I just looked at my credit report and one company charged off FIVE DOLLARS!! back in 1996 and now I see a CRA has picked up this debt and has reaged it to 11/2002. In fact, I see more than one like this were the debt was charged off and the CRA's picked it up and updated them this year. Do I also let Trans Union know along with the CRA's that are doing this? I never knew it was against the law. Someone once told me that as long as the company pays, CRA's can keep the bad credit on there way beyond the 7 years.

Anyway, I am very relieved right now but still am feeling guilty for not being able to pay my obligations. It would indeed present a hardship on my part. Once again, I thank you all for taking the time to help me. :)..

As radi8 says "Further reducing your quality of life benefits nobody"... I wish you a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2003!!..