A little background for you...



I served in the US Army from July 1995 until November 1998. Having heard horror stories about AAFES (Army/Air Force Exchange Services, the company that run the PX/etc on post) I never signed up for their DPP credit program or wrote a check there.

However, during the summer of 1998, I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Southern Watch. Knowing that there were no ATMs or other convenient ways to obtain cash at the Air Force installation we would be stationed, I elected to obtain checks from my bank (NationsBank) so that I could use them at the PX on base.

Unfortunately, NationsBank screwed up and put the wrong account number on the checks. Failing to check their work, I ended up writing what amounts to several hot checks during my summer there. Mea culpa... I didn't find about any of this until we were redeployed to Fort Campbell that fall. Of course, it was not my intention to defraud anyone so I immediately settled my debt with AAFES and worked with NationsBank on the matter. NationsBank was very helpful and paid all the returned check fees.



Fast forward...  EIGHT FUCKING YEARS




I received a notice from the Department of the Treasury. Fearing an all-out assault by jack-booted thugs, I immediately hid my dogs in the bunker. However, no assaults were planned on my compound. Instead, the notice reads (paraphrased):

"We took $90 from your federal tax return and gave it to Army & Air Force Exchange Service. If you want to find out why, call them. Even though we can gladly take your money, we can't help you figure out why. Fuck you and have a very nice day."


So I call the number listed on the notice, which puts me in contact with AAFES. After the usual rigamarole of proving I am who I say I am, the lady on the other end of the line says that I owe AAFES $37.XX for bad checks in December 1998. Apparently, this is from the to-do that happened while I was in Saudi Arabia, as the total amount of bad checks written was $XXX and apparently I only paid them $YYY. This left a discrepancy of $37.XX which has since ballooned to the nice round sum of $90 due to all the fees they want to charge me.

All of this is news to me: I could have sworn that I settled up with AAFES EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AGO. AAFES Collections won't take payments over the phone and are mailing a statement out to me.

So I ask the AAFES Collections lady: "Does AAFES usually weight EIGHT YEARS to collect on debts that are owed to them?" So she gets all flustered and mumbles some gibberish about contracts and manually inputting stuff. Then....   the piece de resistance...   she says, "Well, last August we mailed a statement to your last known address about this." The only problem is my last known address with AAFES is my military Home of Record, which is in Texas. In a house I no longer live in. In a house my PARENTS no longer live in.




EIGHT FUCKING YEARS

Title edit ~ 82ndAbn

I sense anger here. Tell me how this interaction made you feel.

Quoted: Is the staute of limitations 7 years on an unsecured debt? I'd fight it man ... mortage your house and get a good set of lawyers to fight them bitches. It could have been worse ... it could have been $87 dollars.

Quoted: Is the staute of limitations 7 years on an unsecured debt? I'd fight it man ... mortage your house and get a good set of lawyers to fight them bitches. It could have been worse ... it could have been $87 dollars.

I just hope they don't come back in another eight years and want more money.

Quoted: Quoted: Is the staute of limitations 7 years on an unsecured debt? I'd fight it man ... mortage your house and get a good set of lawyers to fight them bitches. It could have been worse ... it could have been $87 dollars. I just hope they don't come back in another eight years and want more money.

Tell them you want a written statement saying that you are free and clear of all debt - sort of like a lein waiver.

Let's review. You wrote some bad checks through NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN. Which of course, resulted in some indebtedness to AAFES. You then failed to make sure your debt was squared away, and you failed to get a letter, or statement, from them stating such. You gave them an address where they could not contact you. They finally tracked you down after 8 years and you're pissed.



OK.

AAFES....ahhh...brings back memories of expensive beef jery and cheap cigars

Quoted: Quoted: don't feel bad. last year food world tried to cash a check that mona wrote on a bank account that has been closed for 15+ years. Naturally it bounced. They swore out a warrant for her at the local DA's office. you ready for this.... the check was under 15.00. with fees and the Processing that was mandatory through the da's office to clear this up < food world has a NO TOLARANCE policy on bad checks and would not drop the issue.> it cost us 250 dollars. I spoke with the store manager and he explained to me they were remodelling the store and found the check under a cash register station when they pulled it. Because they were idiots my wife had a warrant out for her arrest <failure to respond and appear for a court date we knew nothing about> i will NEVER set foot in one of those stores again. this was THEIR fuckup and they had no interest in allowing us to make it right outside the legal system. Dude, Legally, a check more than 6 months old is null and void. You had no legal obligation to pay that bill and you have excellent grounds to sue them for harrasment and possibley lible.

Possibly falsely reporting an incident, perjury, and false arrest also.



-K

Not sure if this was in the post, but how much time passed?

Not mentioned so far:   I HIGHLY recommend you pull a full credit report to see what "other" skeletons you may have lurking.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: don't feel bad. last year food world tried to cash a check that mona wrote on a bank account that has been closed for 15+ years. Naturally it bounced. They swore out a warrant for her at the local DA's office. you ready for this.... the check was under 15.00. with fees and the Processing that was mandatory through the da's office to clear this up < food world has a NO TOLARANCE policy on bad checks and would not drop the issue.> it cost us 250 dollars. I spoke with the store manager and he explained to me they were remodelling the store and found the check under a cash register station when they pulled it. Because they were idiots my wife had a warrant out for her arrest <failure to respond and appear for a court date we knew nothing about> i will NEVER set foot in one of those stores again. this was THEIR fuckup and they had no interest in allowing us to make it right outside the legal system. Dude, Legally, a check more than 6 months old is null and void. You had no legal obligation to pay that bill and you have excellent grounds to sue them for harrasment and possibley lible. Possibly falsely reporting an incident, perjury, and false arrest also. -K

Bingo to both posters.
If someone pulled some shit on me with a check over 1 year old and I ended up in legal trouble over it I'd sure the everloving shit out of them.

Quoted: Is the staute of limitations 7 years on an unsecured debt? I'd fight it man ... mortage your house and get a good set of lawyers to fight them bitches. It could have been worse ... it could have been $87 dollars.

It depends on the state, but in CA the statute of limitations is 5 years. The credit agency limit for bad entries is 7 years.

For a debt owed to a federal agency or otherwise subject to recoupment by federal payment offset there is no time limit.  

I took an experimental drug while at FT Bragg. The Army paid me $90 everytime they drew blood from me for testing after that every month for about a year.(Hey I was a stupid spec 4)

I PCS'ed to Benning and and stopped having blood draws and stopped getting checks.  But got a check that was forwarded from Bragg and was over a year old.

I didn't realize it was a year old, and cashed it at the Airborne shopette. A few months later I get a letter via my CO that I lost my check privleges at the PX because of a bad check I wrote and chashed.

The morons at the PX had the US Gov't check in their hands, and still wrote my CO a letter stating that I WROTE A BAD CHECK.

I got it all cleared up but still was pissed.

What pisses me off the most is that AAFES is a private company that runs the PX for the Military. Yet they have access to our Military chain of command and Tax refunds.

Quoted: For a debt owed to a federal agency or otherwise subject to recoupment by federal payment offset there is no time limit.

AAFES is private.