All record of a Citi/Amex debt disapeared from my wifes credit report ?

[WanabeFree]

My wife is permanently disabled but collects disability income. I am Self employed but its a small business and we get but its not a thriving business. About 4 yrs ago we found ourselves unable to keep up with our debts and defaulted on a second mortgage for over 106k with HSBC. It was charged off in Jan of 2009 and remains unpaid and uncorrectable because we are underwater out home like most. We had close to 20k in credit card debt with about 12k of that in my wifes name only the other cards were mostly business use debt and in My name only.
So after reviewing out options we considered BK but were advised to just stop paying on the credit card debts that were in my wife's name since she was mostly judgment proof + the 2nd mortgage that was in both names. Ok so that is a little history and now the question or weird thing.
My wife had a Citi/Amex card that had just under 10k charged on it that I actually did not know about but that is another story. We had originally set up a payment arrangement wit them making payments of $134 per mos. @ 12% reduced interest we did not realize at the time that this was just a temporary arrangement and with no notice they just quite auto drafting there payments so after 2 mos of non payment we got a nasty letter in the mail saying we needed to pay all back payments and a much larger minimum payment immediately. i told them hell no I am on a payment plan and can pay not one penny more they refused to reinstate out plan an that was the last payment they ever received from us. Well fast forward about 18 mos and we get a letter not from Citi but from some law firm offering to represent us in a law suit with a case number on it for reference. I read it and said what the heck there was never any service or notice given to me or my wife on this so I go to our local court website and look up the case and sure enough my wife had a pending lawsuit Naming Citi as the plaintiff. After a little head shaking I decided to call Citi up and see just what was going on and I was given a law firms number and told to call them directly. So I call this law firm up and after some back and forth verification of who I was and the court case they put me on hold for a minute or two and then an attorney comes on line and says well the case has been sent back to the original lender and is closed as far as they are concerned and if I had any questions to call the original creditor in a few days to get an update. Ok so a few days later I once again call Citi the original creditor and they tell me yes it has been sent back to them and ask what I wanted to do about the past due dept. I told the person that I already had agreed to one payment plan and they canceled it without notice so as far as I am concerned we are done with them. I also informed them that this was my wife;s debt and she had no job and only income was from Social Security Disability and it was exempt from collection. We had a little conversation but mostly I just said have a nice day and hung up.
Well I got a little worried and went back to the Court records and all it said was closed by plaintiff with some notes so I just let it go and mostly forgot about it. Now just a few days ago and about a year since all this went down I pulled a credit report on my wife and Low and Behold all record of this debt is gone , no record , no late notices nothing, it is as if it never existed and this is on all 3 major credit reporting agencies. So I am just wondering what to think ? did this case get thrown out by the judge for non service or some other issue ? Is this really gone for ever? I wish could find the original Court docket to look it up again but would have to pay to lookup by name so I have not done it yet.
Any thoughts, Feed back ?

[AngelinaCatHub]

Hey, "Wannabe'", what more could you ask??? Forget it. No one is Judgement proof, but collection proof. However, they realize it is futile in your situation. Contact them no more in that if in the Statute of Limitation you would rewind that clock. Let it go and call it "God's gift". Shake that hornets nest again and you may not be pleased. 'Hub

[WanabeFree]

Hey, "Wannabe'", what more could you ask??? Forget it. No one is Judgement proof, but collection proof. However, they realize it is futile in your situation. Contact them no more in that if in the Statute of Limitation you would rewind that clock. Let it go and call it "God's gift". Shake that hornets nest again and you may not be pleased. 'Hub

AngelaCatHub,

Yes collection proof is a better choice of words.
I am not trying to shake any trees just found it both odd and wonderful at the same time. We are in CA. so the SOL is still another year away but it seems as though this sleeping dog won't be woken up.
I think I was just wondering if anyone else had any similar stories or explanation for all of this.

[AngelinaCatHub]

AngelaCatHub,

Yes collection proof is a better choice of words.
I am not trying to shake any trees just found it both odd and wonderful at the same time. We are in CA. so the SOL is still another year away but it seems as though this sleeping dog won't be woken up.
I think I was just wondering if anyone else had any similar stories or explanation for all of this.

Cannot say that I know of any. Perhaps others may slide in with a story. Here is a short one: My Mother who had a life long perfect credit history had to write all her CC's a letter. It was four pages long explaining that she only made 400 in SS (I don't know the amount) and that she could no longer pay (the amounts were not large), and in her own hand writing begged forgiveness; it must have worked. She never got another bill from three cards. She shortly thereafter passed away.

I'm pleased you have been blessed. 'Hub

[LadyInTheRed]

The fact that a debt is not being reported on a credit report does not mean you won't hear about it again. You very well may start getting letters from somebody who bought the debt.

I'd leave it alone. But, calling the creditor won't reset the SOL You can't reset the SOL in California without making a payment or promising in writing to make a payment.

[AngelinaCatHub]

The fact that a debt is not being reported on a credit report does not mean you won't hear about it again. You very well may start getting letters from somebody who bought the debt.

I'd leave it alone. But, calling the creditor won't reset the SOL You can't reset the SOL in California without making a payment or promising in writing to make a payment.

Good to know LIR. I did not know that. Does that apply elsewhere or only CA? 'Hub

[WanabeFree]

Just trying to understand why it went away in the first place.

The fact that a debt is not being reported on a credit report does not mean you won't hear about it again. You very well may start getting letters from somebody who bought the debt.

I'd leave it alone. But, calling the creditor won't reset the SOL You can't reset the SOL in California without making a payment or promising in writing to make a payment.

I am not under any allusion that this debt can't or won't reappear somewhere out of the blue. I just am confused as to why it was removed in the first place. I am not turning over any stones or looking to open a new can of worms just trying to understand what has happened and staying prepared for it to rear its ugly head latter on. I want to think because it is already close to 3 yrs old that I can just wait out the 4 yr SOL in CA. and not worry about it though.

[AngelinaCat]

Well, 'Hub has forgotten about our situation: About two weeks after we filed, we made a couple of purchases via new credit. One at Radio Shack, the other at Lowe's. We knew that these two in-store credits were new charges, and had no problem with paying for them in full, once the yearly retirement stipend we receive was in place. We filed 12/28/2007. The stipend happened in the middle of January 2008.

When we went to both Radio Shack and Lowe's, to pay up, they both could not locate our accounts. We even had the itemized receipts for the items that we purchased, but the stores could NOT find our accounts.

We later found out that both RS and Lowe's credit accounts are/were at that time, owned by one of the home companies that owned the other two CC accounts we filed against. Our attorney told us she had never heard of any such thing happening.

I do NOT suggest trying this at home. I think this happened due to the New Year's Holiday and the mail delivery crossing each others' paths, as our 'Suggestion Of Bankruptcy' went out to the creditors.

Good wishes to you. But WanabeFree, in the future when posting a very long post as you did in the first one here, PLEASE break it up into easily discernible paragraphs so that the members can read it. I almost passed it by...

Thankyou!

[LadyInTheRed]

Good to know LIR. I did not know that. Does that apply elsewhere or only CA? 'Hub

It's state law specific. In California, the Code of Civil Procedure Section 360 states:

No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new
or continuing contract, by which to take the case out of the
operation of this title, unless the same is contained in some
writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby, provided that any
payment on account of principal or interest due on a promissory note
made by the party to be charged shall be deemed a sufficient
acknowledgment or promise of a continuing contract to stop, from time
to time as any such payment is made, the running of the time within
which an action may be commenced upon the principal sum or upon any
installment of principal or interest due on such note, and to start
the running of a new period of time, but no such payment of itself
shall revive a cause of action once barred.

Note that even a payment won't restart the SOL in California if it has already run.

It's still good practice not to acknowledge the debt. But, that shouldn't scare somebody from calling the creditor to get information on the status of an "alleged debt".

WanabeFree, I wouldn't worry about why the debt was removed from your credit report. Just accept the happy circumstance. But, don't rely on what appears on your credit report to determine whether or not you will be eventually sued for the debt. Removing the debt from your credit report, does not have any effect on the creditor's right to collect.