Payoff credit or wait 7 years?

I have an old credit account that is about to reach the 7 year mark. Should I pay it off or just wait a few months. Does it matter? The account is almost 10,000 dollars, so I don't want to pay it off if I don't have too. Also, advice for cleaning credit?

There are two time lines that have to be considered.

The first is per the Fair Credit Reporting Act and says that derogatory accounts continue to show for 7-years from the date of first delinquency which works out to 7-years and 180-days.

The other is the statute of limitations and this varies by State and type of debt. This is the legal time that creditors have to sue and get a judgment in court.

They can still sue after the S.O.L. has expired but all you have to do is show the court that it has expired and the case will be dismissed.

I have posted a link in the source box so you can look up your State and see what the S.O.L. is.

As far as paying it, do not pay this debt, the S.O.L. will be reset if you do and your credit score will suffer because the accounts will then be considered current instead of old.

The time for reporting the account can not be reset.

O.B.T.W. v b is correct about the tax thing.

No, do not pay it

if you are about to reach your 7 year mark then I highly recommend you leave that alone because if you pay it off then your 7 yr mark starts back from that date you paid and will remain there for 7 yrs

The debt is yours and it's still out there. While it may roll off of your credit report, it doesn't go away.

When the company finally writes the debt off, you will receive a 1099-C for the cancelled debt and you will report this as INCOME on your tax return. While the IRS won't charge you 100% for taxes, at least you will be penalized. YOU borrowed the money and YOU should have paid it back.