Best answer from question by G:
Answer by TaxGurl
If they are five years old, chances are, they’ve been sold to an outside collection agency.
Best bet is to talk to the creditors and try to pay them off. Depending on where you live, they could be ready to garnish your wages which adds court costs on top of the principal, interest, and penalties they are already charging you. They’ve probably already damaged your credit so the best course of action is to work with them to make them go away as quickly as possible so you can work on rebuilding your score. The longer you wait, the more interest they compound.
Have you tried to pay back your loans that you legally owe, or do you enjoy being a deadbeat and stiffing people???
First, you should check to see what the statute of limitations is for your state. You might be beyond the point at which they can force you to repay the loans. Even if you are, turn up to any court dates if you are sued. Not turning up is a common mistake andd the creditors win by default.
Pay no attention to all these offers from Asian loan sharks.
What you can do:
1. Pay them all off. The default will remain on your credit report for seven years (two more to go?), but they will stop calling you. The money will not go to your original creditors since they have sold off your bad loan. Your bad loan may have been resold several times, now the bottom feeders are calling you.
2. Don’t pay them off. The default will remain on your credit report for seven years (two more to go?), but the phone calls will continue. It is not honorable to default on a loan. but your friends will never know.
3. Get caller ID on your phone and an answering machine. Pick up only calls from people you know, call back any others you care to.
Really its not something I would recommend often and it can get you in a lot of debt. But maybe theres no alternative. Best of luck.