Hello, first I would like to say in adavance that I appreciate any input or answers that I receive in response to my inquiry.
I'll make it brief:
I'm in Texas. Had several credit cards go into charge off status in approximately 2000 and 2001. As of June 2009, my credit reports reflected an average score of 590.
Recently, I've received a few collection letters (as recently as a few weeks ago). Curious to see where my score stands now, I purchased the service which gives you access to all three bureau reports. I was shocked to find that my average score is now 744 and all of the bad debts (charge offs) are no longer reflected on my report.
Here's where I need some clarification:
I seem to believe that it's possible for the bad debt to fall off of the report after 10 years or so, but that collection agencies can continue to attempt to collect the debt. Do I have this correct? Would this explain the letter attempting to collect, even though the item has expired from my reports?
Next, if the agencies continue to attempt to collect, or sell the account to another agency, can this cause something to re-appear on my credit reports? I've tried to research this as thoroughly as possible on my own and I believe, from what I've found, that once the debt has expired from the report, it can no longer be re-added unless it's the outcome of a judgement, lien, etc., as a result of going to court.
I suppose the easiest way of asking my question is, now that the negative items have fallen off of my report, is there any way that they can re-appear (assuming there is no judgment, etc,. that is pursued)?
I'm just wondering if I can finally put all of this behind me and focus on maintaining my good-standing credit that I currently have. I was young and stupid when I messed up my credit by allowing a co-signer to make purchases across four different cards without ever paying me a dime for any of it. Stupid, stupid....NEVER again. I've had to pay for this mistake via extremely high interest rates on my car loans (19%, 21%) and credit card (31%). To say the least, I've definitely learned my lesson and will not repeat past mistakes.
Again, any insight you might provide would be most appreciated.

