Credit Education
- Glossary of Credit Terms
- FAQs
- Preapproved Credit Offers
  
  What’s in a credit report, how can you check it and how often should you review it? Make sure your credit information is accurate and check your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion reports side-by-side with Experian’s 3 Bureau Online Credit Report.
  - Mailing Lists and
    Preapproved Offers
  - Opt Out
- Credit Advice
  
  Ask Experian
  
  Get credit information on the hottest topics from Experian’s team.
- Life Events and Credit
  
  Find out how life events affect your credit and how to build good credit for the major purchases in your life.
- Preventing Fraud
  
  Learn the warning signs of credit fraud, and get the credit information you need to protect yourself. Are you already a victim? Experian can help.
- Credit Scores
  
  What are credit scores, and how are they calculated? Get the answers to your credit score questions.
- Credit Reporting
  
  Improve your credit by understanding basic consumer credit information: what’s in a credit report, how to check it and how often you should review it.
Products
Disputes

Collection agencies can try to collect debt after it is deleted from your credit report

Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can't find what you're looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.

Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.

Subscribe to RSS feed

Credit Advice

Topics addressed on March 4, 2009:

Collection agencies can try to collect debt after it is deleted from your credit report

Dear Max,

How many years back can a collection agency go to collect a debt? I have one from 1999 that my ex-wife and I have that was not paid. I am getting letters and calls from them, and they are telling me that they can still take my wages thru a garnishment. My wife was to pay this when we divorced. I make more money than her so they said they are going after me. Can they do this?

- TMW

Dear TMW,

The statute of limitations for attempting to collect a debt varies by state, so you would need to check the laws for where you live. However, there is a limit on how long that debt can appear in your credit report. So, depending on your state, the collection agency might continue to contact you even after the account has been deleted from your credit history.

Collection accounts are deleted seven years from the original delinquency date of the original account. The original delinquency date is the date the account first became delinquent and after which was never again current.

Your email indicates the account was delinquent in 1999, if not before, so it very likely has been deleted from your report. You can find out by requesting a copy online at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Your situation is complicated by divorce. It is important to understand that a divorce decree does not remove your responsibility for joint accounts because it does not affect the contract you have with your lender. A divorce decree is only an agreement between you and the court.

In order to remove yourself from responsibility for the joint account you must contact the lender and it must agree to change the contract. They may require you or your ex-wife to show that you can manage the debt individually before they will agree to do so.

I would advise you to contact an attorney about the ability of the collection agency to garnish your wages. That is beyond my expertise.

Thanks for asking.

Credit Reporting

Improve your credit by understanding basic consumer credit information: what’s in a credit report, how to check it and how often you should review it.
Credit Scores

What are credit scores, and how are they calculated? Get the answers to your credit score questions.
Preventing Fraud

Learn the warning signs of credit fraud, and get the credit information you need to protect yourself. Are you already a victim? Experian can help.
Life Events and Credit

Find out how life events affect your credit and how to build good credit for the major purchases in your life.
Credit Advice

Ask Experian

Get credit information on the hottest topics from Experian’s team.
Preapproved Credit Offers

What’s in a credit report, how can you check it and how often should you review it? Make sure your credit information is accurate and check your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion reports side-by-side with Experian’s 3 Bureau Online Credit Report.
- Mailing Lists and
  Preapproved Offers
- Opt Out
FAQs
Glossary of Credit Terms

Credit 101

Personal Services