Collection on charge off 8 years later.?

A collection agency started calling me on an old gas bill that I appearently still owed back in 1999. I didn't even know I owed anything as I never received anything from this gas company after I moved and I had my mail forwarded. Now 9 years later, I'm being told by this agency that my bill was charged off in 2000 but they are wanting payment. Is this legal and how did they get my cell phone number as I didn't even have a cell phone back then?

Theoretically, a collection agency can try to collect on a debt till the day you die....However, after a certain amount of time, the statue of limitations runs out....this is the time period allowed to take legal action against you. This varies for each state....most states are four to five years....Once the statue of limitations expires....all they can do to you is try to annoy you to death by calling. You can put a stop to this.

If this debt is past the statue of limitations for your state, send them a "Cease Communications" letter. This will stop the collection activity. See template in link below for this letter.

A bill is a bill is a bill. There is no statute for someone attempting to collect a debt, so yes, this is very legal.

Skip tracing software is used by thousands of agencies worldwide to track people down. If you've applied for credit recently, and have listed your cell phone as a good contact, your information is readily available to anyone you owe money to.

There is a VERY easy way to deal with this. You need to send a certified letter requesting a debt validation. If they cannot validate the debt (they need to prove that you incurred the debt and they need to account for every penny of the debt). If they cannot do this the debt is considered invalid and you do not owe the debt.

You also should check your credit report and make sure they have not attached the collection to your credit report. If they have once you get the validation back...or if you don't then you need to send the documentation to the credit bureaus so they will remove the listing.

Once they sign for the letter you send the collection company has 30 days to validate the debt...if they cannot do it in that time then you have the right to send them a letter stating you consider the debt invalid because they could not validate it within the government timelines...

yup they can call you every day!!!!! you owe a debt. this had affected your credit. they found your number through skip tracing

Slimick, and to a lesser extent omfgitsrobmoney is right, they can attempt to collect on this debt, they just can't win a lawsuit against you if it's past the statue of limitations.

(By the way, who the hell would give Slimick a "thumbs down" for that answer? He was correct.)

This link shows the statue of limitations for all states.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/...

Now to address the wrong answers...

SCH has the right idea...but let me ask you this...why would you bother validating a debt that is past the SoL (like this likely is) and is past the 7 year reporting mark? Simply verify that it is past the SoL and send the collection agency a cease and desist letter stating as such. Problem solved.

Getting married is a self admitted debt collector, so you should automatically assume that anything she says is a lie. She states that they can continue calling you and that is correct, but she forget to mention (and gee, I wonder why?) a powerful tool that will put a stop to that...

...the cease and desist letter we mentioned earlier.

You send that certified mail/return receipt to a bill collector and if they continue to contact you, you have won an EASY $1000 lawsuit. It's a slam dunk case.