What about the creditor themselves? Do they ever purge their records, or would you be in their "bad books" forever?

@Richard

I believe in repaying what you owe but only within a certain period of time. Some C/As constantly dig up some prehistoric debts that are 10-15 year-old, hoping they might get lucky and threaten debtors to pay. If you owe a debt that is 6+ years old, I would just tell you to move on and do not make the same mistake again. Everyone deserves a fresh start, and if creditors do not sue before SOL due, they just simply give up the chance to get the money back. Credit agencies need to remove bad items that are more than 6 years old for a reason, and the reason is to give everyone a fresh start.

Throwing good money after bad money is always an unwise move. From my experience C/As rarely sue but for those ones that do, cases always get settled in a mediation before the actual trial and the judge will end up giving out a ruling of something like $20/month with no interest incurred.

The chance of creditors that would sue is getting slimmer after the debt is assigned to the 2nd C/A. The reason is after the 2nd C/A gets the debt, it is already 1 to 1.5 years old from the date of last activity. If you do not acknowledge the debt, the creditor will have only 6 months left to sue before the debt is stat barred. As I said before, banks are never that dumb to throw their good money to after bad money, they have shareholders to answer to.

Hope this helps.

OC not sure if you got my PM back on that (it might be acting up again), but to stop calls the letter needs to rely on sections 22.1 or 22.2 of the act in Ontario, that template you drafted probably won’t do the trick because it doesn't reference one those area's.

If the CA is not the sharpest tool in the shed they may miss the absence of 22.1 or 22.2 because of the general tone; so it will probably throw a few CA's off.

Either way even if you cite the proper sections and deliver it correctly CA's are still pretty bad about listening to "stop call" orders.

If you have the means always do something about the debt off.

I don't advocate hiding from your financial obligations but if you don't have the means right now OC's approach should buy you some relief from calls; but won’t change the fact you owe the money. If you want assistance (and owe $10k + in total debt) and have steady income you can always call my office for a free quote.

Joe, your point is noted.. Just remember though, ya need cash for that sometimes, eh! Ces la vie!

Orestes, which province are you from? If it's Ontario have a quick glance at the following template I drafted. Just a heads up though it might need a slight modification (waiting for Rich to comment on it):

Replace: Collection Agencies Act, R.S.O 1990

With: Ontario Regulation 103/06

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/16640811/Cease-and-Desist-template-letter-for-Ontario-residents

Why not settle your debts instead of worry about the sol or getting sued? If you need a good debt settlement company to help you, here is one listed below.

http://www.totaldebtfreedom.ca/

Great info.

Better way to phrase my question would have been how likely are the agencies later in the rotation likely to convince the creditor to allow them to sue on their behalf.

All my problems have less then a year left for SoL, so was wondering what the chances are that a "rabid dog" to borrow the phrase would try to take things legal near the end.

Sidenote, and genesis of this thought was that a new agency called me yesterday for the first time - but also called my neighbour asking them to give me a VERY important message asking me to call their 1800 #.

New tactic used on me, so got me to thinking how things could change.

It's usually the smaller collection outfits OC.

I don't know what it is, or why they bother since its often a colossal waste of resources and they rarely get anything after suing.

Think Napoleon complex.

I agree with the crew that a C/A will always threaten to sue. In my case, nobody ever did, but I certainly saw all the letters and received all the phone calls. I must admit that out of 'em all, Deanna's statement DRAFT claim made it to the top of the rubbish heap. Almost convensing, BUT!! She's still got some work to do..

Rich, do you have a list of which agencies rank along the rabid bull dogs? Would be curious to see a break down of who's at the top of the provocation pack.

I agree 100% w/AJ.. in our experience its very rare to be sued by a collection agency its usually going to be the original creditor.

I can promise you 100% they will all threaten it.

You should be aware that there are very small handful of collection agencies that are litigious and do sue, but they seem to do it without rhyme or reason.

These C/A's that randomly throw money at lawsuits have more money then brains in most cases and never recover their legal costs.