&gt; Can I ask what the damage is by allowing collection agencies who have purchased a debt to attempt to collect said debt past it&#x27;s SOL? If you touch a debt (e.g. make a partial payment) it resets the SOL, so it seems there&#x27;s precedent that a debt past its SOL is still a valid debt.<p>If the law says you can&#x27;t collect, you should not be able to ask either. You&#x27;re relying on someone&#x27;s ignorance to collect a debt.<p>&gt; It also seems like a beneficial negotiation tactic for the consumer. Some states have an SOL well below the ~7-year period where it falls off your credit report. So if I live in Louisiana with a 3-year SOL on consumer debt and someone tries to collect a 4-year-old debt, pay-for-delete obviously becomes a much more likely scenario. My credit goes up a lot with the removal of a delinquent account, and the collector makes money off something I could otherwise ignore without penalty.<p>Again, you&#x27;re assuming a shred and educated citizen who is attempting to use a loophole (pay-to-delete, which violates a collector&#x27;s agreement with all three credit reporting agencies).<p>No. Asking someone to pay after the SOL has passed as the debt is time barred is tantamount to fraud. I&#x27;ve already placed called to Senator Warren&#x27;s office, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.