achasem

Thanks for participating, this has been a very informative ama. Unpaid debt is the biggest source of anxiety in my life. When I was 20 years old I started making my first purchases and maxed out a few credit cards. I am now 30 years old and I have ignored the unpaid debt for the better part of a decade. I don't even have an idea how much I owe. In my estimation, it is likely upwards of $10,000. I ignore all phone calls, throw away all letters without opening them, and generally go about my life trying to pretend the problem doesn't exist. The only person I blame for the problem is myself. I've been trying to work up the courage to face the problem head on, but I have no idea where to start. What would be the logical starting point in rectifying a situation such as mine?

Before you even suggested it, I decided to get my credit report from annualcreditreport.com (I read about it on forbes.com). I have some of my collection letters beside me (e.g., a circuit city card debt, a cabelas visa card debt) and they aren't even showing up on my credit report. Do agencies often continue to attempt to collect debt after it is no longer on your report? If so, should I pay it, ignore it, or call them and tell them to get lost?

In fact, many of the debts I had on there the last time I saw my report years ago are not on there. Is this a good thing? Or is this a false positive?

I was not a hiker growing up. Quite frankly, I hated the idea of walking anywhere, let alone more than 2,500 miles. However, over the last two years, I have became utterly obsessed with hiking. So far, I have not tried any long distance hikes, mainly because I have not gained enough confidence in my survival skills. Most of my experience has been in Ohio, West Virginia, Oregon, and Washington. Did you find the mental aspect of taking the first plunge into long distance hiking to be a large barrier for you, or did you just pretty much say screw it and go for it? Were you fairly experienced before your first long distance hike?

I am in the same situation. I posted a very similar question, although all my debt was do to my own greed when I was 18-20 years of age. I am now 30 years old and haven't even let the thought of engaging collection agencies or rebuilding my credit cross my mind. Worse yet, I have since then gained student loan debts (roughly 60k, but in good standing) as I have earned my bachelors and masters degrees. The problem is, I am about to embark on my career in education and feel like it is time to get these problems taken care of, but I haven't a clue where to start.