What is Statute of Limitations on old debt?

Question

My husband has credit card debt from back in 1999 or 2000 from before I knew him. He forgot he had the credit card and moved around a few times. They never notified him until in 2004 they froze his bank account. Now, my husband spoke to them in 2004 and tried to get this taken care of but wouldn't work with him because he had little money & they wanted a lump sum upfront. Now, they froze our joint checking/saving account in 2008. Now, we live in NY and the Statute of Limitations is 7 years. Now, if he never paid anything when they got a judgment & froze his account in 2004 & now they froze our accounts in 2008- would the is Statute of Limitations still apply?

Answer 1

Different times for different states and all states have a SOL, for New York it is 6 years. Here is a source  you can check, if you dont believe it go look on the internet and you can find several sources. It took me all  of a minute to find this one.

Answer 2

There is no statute of limitations on debt in NY state.

Answer 3

You are confusing several things(which is not uncommon).  The 7 years you refer to is the Credit Reporting Period.   Which has to do with the amount of time this debt can be listed on your credit report.  This is the same for all States and starts from the date of the First Delinquency.  This is not the same as the Statute of Limitations which is the period of time that they could prevail if they file a suit against you in court.  This varies by state and type of debt, for Credit Cards(Open Accounts) in NY this is 6 years from the date of the last payment.  If the debt was from 1999/2000 and they sued you in court in 2004 it would have been within the SOL.

However, once they received a judgment the original SOL no longer matters.  The one that now counts is the one for the Judgment.  In NY this is 10 years from the date of the judgment, so if the judgment was from 2004 it would still be valid.