Merchants' Credit Guide ripoff ~ Pinnacle Credit Services for Sears account credit card debt was incured about 20 years ago and had been settled over 15 years ago Chicago Same company working with the Alyon scam on this site!Illinois

There is a growing industry out there that buys old debts - charged off, deceased, bankrupt - makes no difference for a couple of pennies on the dollar and then adds on all those years of interest at the contract rate - often tripling the debt amount - and then trying to collect it all.

You are aware the debt is Out of Statute of Limitations, and that is valuable knowledge. I am sure the collector knows this also. The reason the collector was so belligerent is simple - if he can scare a payment out of you - any payment - you have in most states acknowledged the debt and have brought the debt back into Statute and then they can sue you.

There are two laws you should know about - both Federal - Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

FCRA states that once a debt has gone 7 years after default (that's the FIRST payment you missed that led to the charge off) it can no longer be reported on your credit file. That is why this debt is not in your credit file - BUT I suggest you monitor your credit file. Some of these Junk Debt Buyers (JDB's) have been known to change the Status Date ofa debt to make the default look more recent in order to get the debt onto your credit file. This is known as re-aging and is a FCRA violation. I sued two JDB's for re-aging and collected from both of them.

FDCPA states that debt collectors cannot do a long list of unfair and deceptive acts - one of which is bringing suit for an Out-of-Statute debt. If the collector sues you, file a counterclaim for the FDCPA violation as well as asserting the defense of SOL.

I am sure that if you do a Google Search by the company's name you will find several message boards where consumers share information on how to handle exactly the situation you are in.