Q: How can I resolve an old debt situation without damaging my credit?
Without giving detail of a bad situation from my teen years, I filed bankruptcy in my early twenties, finished college, went to grad school, and moved forward. Now I'm a stable forty-something with a family and when I logged in to my new mortgage servicer to download my tax documents, two old accounts (totaling less than $3,000) popped up in my account view. They were 20 years old. I called the bank to ask about them and they said they were old charge offs. They transferred me to dispute them. After several minutes on hold, I decided I needed to think about this and hung up. I'm not sure if they were legit accounts, if they were, why they wouldn't have been in my old bankruptcy, or what I can do now. I'm worried if I just pay them it will impact my credit and open up a whole can of worms of hidden fees, etc. taking up the amount. What can I do? It was in Ohio, I'm in Illinois now.
A:
They showed up in the tax documents.
What does that mean.
These debts are too old to be owed and will not show up on your credit report.
You could mess up by paying on them.
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