Does debt go away on its own if you never pay it?

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    • David S.
      Member

        I always hear of people saying just forget about it and it will go away but I have had some debts I was not able to pay years ago and I am still getting calls and letters about it so I fail to see how it just goes away on its own. What do people mean when they say this?

      • Alex R.
        Member

          Debts come with a statute of limitations which implies that they can only go after you for your debts for so long. This is written in the law within the US and the timeframe varies from state to state. Medical debt will always be owed, even if they stop asking you for it. Other debts depend on the amount and what kind of debt they actually are. While most debt is wiped from your credit history after 7 to 12 years (depends on your state), you still owe the money and this can still cause issues with loans and such in the future.

        • Richie M.
          Member

            Some do, some don’t. It depends on the state – the bank – the amount… Really a lot of factors. I have known people with small debts (under $3,000) not do anything about it and they stopped being bothered over it. Eventually their credit scores went back up.

          • I think this depends on the banks. I had a few credit lines just randomly close on me. I come to find out, even though I still owed each of them several hundred, the bank itself went belly up and no debts were transferred over to another bank.

          • Brie Anna
            Member

              I think it can but it comes down to how much you owe and who you owe. Sometimes banks close down and the debt is never paid back. This happened to me. My first bank account I had, I owed them over $400 because a card of mine wrongly took out a monthly payment from my bank account and put it into the negative. I had no idea and kept getting charged $32 every 3 days until the account was locked. A few weeks later, before I had time to pay it back, the bank closed.

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