Before you go get your pitch forks and torches, let me give you a little background on what happened. Five years ago I started a business over seas with a partner.  After a year and a half of hard work we were forced to close down and declare bankruptcy. During that year and a half I was never able to give myself a payckeck as all the money coming in went straight back into the everyday expenses of our business.  During that time I relied on my credit card to live.  Eventually I had to stop paying the credit card because I had no earnings.  When it was all over I moved back to the U.S. and consulted a CPA so that I could start paying back my debt.  The CPA advised me to not pay because the stature of limitations on such a debt would run out in 7 years.  He even went as far as saying that it would be worse for my credit to settle the amount. By the way the inital amount I owed was about 8000 dollars.  It turned into 12 because of interest and fees and so forth.  I dont have an issue with paying but I was advised not to.  Recently I received an inheritance of 17000 dollars and up until now have been living pay check to pay check and could not afford to save a penny of my small earnings.  I posted my question in the hopes that someone out there had had a similar experience.  please try to limit your insults as they are not helpful to anyone.