"sleeping debt"

**gmarie** · 02-22-2011, 03:14 PM

I pulled a 3 in one credit report for DH yesterday because we are getting ready to pay off the rest of his old debt.

First of all, I was so excited to see that some of our recent disputes worked out in his favor and his credit was cleaned up quite nicely. It feels good to see incorrect items come off! ;-)

My question is that one of the debts that I was planning to pay is no longer showing up on any of the 3 reports. I asked him how old the account and he thought it was at least 10 years old. If this debt finally just "dropped" off, should we pay it anyway? I hate not paying a debt because I feel it is unethical, but on the other hand, wouldn't paying it result in the credit bureaus reporting it for another 7 years? Our goal is to buy our first house within the next few years.

Could the debt ever show up again? (no creditor has ever called him on this debt, at least not in the 5 years we have been together).

Also, has anyone ever seen discrepancies on 3 in 1 reports pulled by different bureau's? I'm wondering if I bought a 3 in 1 from Experian or Transunion instead of Equifax, if it would have different info on it for all three? Is that even possible?

Thanks

**Nishu** · 02-22-2011, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by gmarie

My question is that one of the debts that I was planning to pay is no longer showing up on any of the 3 reports. I asked him how old the account and he thought it was at least 10 years old. If this debt finally just "dropped" off, should we pay it anyway? I hate not paying a debt because I feel it is unethical, but on the other hand, wouldn't paying it result in the credit bureaus reporting it for another 7 years? Our goal is to buy our first house within the next few years.

Could the debt ever show up again? (no creditor has ever called him on this debt, at least not in the 5 years we have been together).

I doubt that a record of it even exists. When debts are that old, they get sold around and the holder will write it off. I'm not 100% sure that you can't pay it off, but my guess is that even if you tried, you won't be able to unless it's to an unethical business that would just let random people pay them money for no reason.

Also, has anyone ever seen discrepancies on 3 in 1 reports pulled by different bureau's? I'm wondering if I bought a 3 in 1 from Experian or Transunion instead of Equifax, if it would have different info on it for all three? Is that even possible?

Thanks

If you order a 3 in one credit report, it should pull accurately from all 3 sources. What you get in that report will be an accurate representation of what each credit bureau has on file for you. It's not unusual that all 3 of the credit reports to be different. I have two that are pretty close to each other and one that's missing an account entirely.

If I understand what you're asking, then I'd say you can't trust one of the three credit reports to be an accurate representation of your credit because they can all have different information. I would trust the 3 in 1 that one agency pulls on your behalf though, because there shouldn't be any difference between the report they get and the one you pull yourself.

**MsMarieH** · 02-22-2011, 05:16 PM

You don't need to pay for your credit report. You can pull a free one from all three places once a year.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

**Greebo** · 02-22-2011, 07:21 PM

Show up on the report? Not without actual real activity like you making a payment. Too old.

**gmarie** · 02-22-2011, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by MsMarieH

You don't need to pay for your credit report. You can pull a free one from all three places once a year.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Thanks, we got our free annual credit reports not too long ago, but I wanted updated ones from all three for the purpose of finding the current creditor information to pay his old debt that is next in our debt snowball. And thank goodness I did! This debt was being reported the last time I checked!