How to find out what debts you owe, and which collection agency has them

Start with your credit reports. They are the closest thing to a full list of what you owe, and they are free. You can check your report from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.^[1]

You can also order by phone on 1-877-322-8228, or by mailing the Annual Credit Report Request Form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.^[1]

Use that site, not a look-alike. The FTC says AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website authorized to fill orders for the free reports you are entitled to by law.^[1] Experian also confirms it is an official, safe and free way to check your reports.^[12] Other sites may try to sell you a subscription or a score.

Get all three reports, not just one. Each report lists the debts that have been reported to that particular credit reporting company, so a debt missing from one report may still appear on another.^[2]

A credit report lists your loans and credit cards, and collection items such as loans sent to collections.^[3] For each collection account, Experian says your report shows how much the collection agency is reporting that you owe, and a telephone number when one is available.^[2]

Go through each report and write down, for every account that is unpaid, past due or in collections:

• the name of the company reporting it, and the original creditor if shown;
• the balance reported;
• the status, for example open, charged off or in collections;
• the date of first delinquency or last payment, which matters for time limits;
• the contact details given.

That date matters more than most people realize. A collection or charged-off account can stay on your credit report for seven years. The seven years start 180 days after the missed payment that led to collection or charge-off, so a later payment, or the debt being sold to a new collector, does not restart them.^[13][14][15] Separately, your state sets a time limit for suing over a debt; our time-limit check works it out from your last payment.

If something on a report is wrong, you can dispute it with the bureau. Our guide to collections on your credit report explains how.^[1]

A clean credit report does not prove you owe nothing. Some debts are left off on purpose, and others may never have been reported.

Medical debt. The three bureaus no longer include paid medical collection debt on credit reports, and have removed medical collection debt with an initial reported balance under $500.^[4] Equifax also says unpaid medical collections now wait one year, rather than six months, before they can appear.^[5] So a recent or small medical bill in collections may be missing. Our guide to unpaid medical bills covers what can happen with them.

Debts a collector has not yet contacted you about. A debt collector must not report a debt to a credit bureau until it has spoken to you about it, or mailed or sent you a message about it.^[16] A newly assigned debt may therefore reach your mailbox before it reaches your report.

Debts that have aged off. Collection accounts drop off credit reports after the seven-year period.^[13][14][15] The debt may still exist, though in many states it may be too old to sue on; our time-barred debt guide explains the difference.

Accounts in specialty reports only, such as payday loans or bounced checks. The next step covers those.^[17]

Beyond the big three, specialty consumer reporting companies collect information about things like bank accounts, including bounced checks and overdrafts, apartment rentals, including evictions, insurance claims, employment history and medical payments.^[17] The CFPB says that under federal law they must give you an easy way to get a free copy of your report every 12 months.^[18]

The CFPB keeps a list of these companies, grouped by industry, including check and bank screening and tenant screening companies.^[19] One example is Clarity Services, which covers payday loans, installment loans and rent-to-own; the CFPB's listing says it provides one free report every 12 months if you request it.^[20]

If you have had payday loans, unpaid overdrafts or a rental dispute, these reports can show debts that never appear on your Equifax, Experian or TransUnion report.^[17]

Debts move around. The original creditor may sell your debt to another party, which may collect it itself or place it with a different debt collector, so the company contacting you may have a different name from the one you originally owed.^[21]

The best record of who has your debt now is the validation notice. Debt collectors must give you information about the debt when they first contact you or within five days.^[22] A validation notice must include the collector's name and dispute address, your name and address, the creditor on the itemization date and the creditor you owe now, the account number, the amount on the itemization date with an itemization of interest, fees, payments and credits since, the current amount, the date the dispute period ends, and tear-off prompts for disputing the debt or asking for the original creditor^[7][8].^[7]

If the notice does not tell you enough, you can ask for more. If you ask in writing within the validation period, the collector must give you the name and address of the original creditor, if it is different from the current creditor, and must stop collecting until it does.^[23] If you dispute in writing within the validation period, the collector must stop collecting the debt, or the disputed part, until it sends you verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment.^[24][25]

If you have a collector's name from your credit report or a phone call but no letter, look the company up. Our collector guides cover the companies people search for most, with their official addresses and phone numbers, and our phone number lookup tells you which company a number belongs to, using only numbers confirmed from official sources.^[22]

Ask questions before you pay or share any personal information. The CFPB says a debt collector should provide information about themselves and their company: their name, the company name, its street address and phone number, and, in states that license debt collectors, a license number.^[22]

You can check that information with your state attorney general and state regulator. It could be a scam if the caller will not share this information, threatens you, or asks for your personal information.^[22] Our free scam checker walks through the warning signs, and our scam guide explains the common tricks.

A genuine collector has to send the validation information described above.^[6] If it never does, or the details do not match anything you recognize, dispute the debt in writing within the validation period.^[24][25]

Federal student loans have their own official record. You can find out who your federal loan servicer is by logging in to your account at StudentAid.gov.^[9] If your loans are in default, Federal Student Aid says a warning message will appear in a red box on your dashboard.^[26]

Defaulted federal loans are handled by the Department of Education's Default Resolution Group, on 1-800-621-3115, and MyEdDebt.ed.gov is the official website for borrowers with defaulted federal loans.^[26]

Private student loans are not in that system. The CFPB says you may be able to find the name of a private lender or servicer by checking your credit report.^[9]

Federal taxes. Your IRS online account lets you view balances owed to the IRS by tax year, up to five years of payment history, and the details of any payment plan.^[10] Use irs.gov directly; the IRS does not need a third party to show you your balance.

Debts referred to the Treasury. Federal agencies, and some state agencies, can refer unpaid debts to the Treasury Offset Program, which can take the money from a tax refund or certain federal payments. To find out whether you have a debt referred to it, you can call the automated line on 1-800-304-3107.^[11] The staff there cannot answer questions about the debt itself or arrange payments; you are notified in advance of an offset, and you contact the agency named in that notice.^[11][27]

State tax agencies, child support agencies and local governments keep their own records. Contact them directly if you think you may owe them.

If a creditor or debt collector sued you and you did not respond, perhaps because the papers went to an old address, the court may have entered a default judgment. The CFPB warns that a judgment can lead to your wages being garnished.^[28]

Many state courts let you search their records online. Wisconsin's court system, for example, offers a public case search covering its circuit courts, and South Dakota offers a search of its civil judgments database.^[29][30] Search your name in the courts of each county where you have lived, or ask the court clerk.

If you find a case that is still open, act quickly: respond by the deadline in the papers.^[28] If a judgment was entered without you knowing, it may be possible to ask the court to set it aside. Our guide to debt lawsuits explains both.

Medical bills often go to collections without people realizing, because they come from several providers and insurers. Ask each hospital, practice or lab for an itemized bill from the provider, so you can check how much you were charged for each service.^[31]

Remember that recent and small medical collections may not be on your credit report at all.^[4][5] If you have had medical care in the past few years, call the billing office of each provider and ask whether anything is unpaid or has been sent to collections. If the bill is from a nonprofit hospital, also ask about financial assistance: tax-exempt hospitals must have a written financial assistance policy and must generally accept applications for 240 days after the first bill sent after you left hospital.^[32][33] Our guide to negotiating medical bills covers what to do next.

If your credit report shows an account you never opened, or a collector is chasing a debt that is not yours, it may be a mistake or identity theft. The FTC says that if you think someone is misusing your personal information, go to IdentityTheft.gov to report it and get a personalized recovery plan.^[1][34]

Dispute the entry with the credit bureau, and dispute the debt with the collector in writing.^[1] If you dispute in writing within the validation period, the collector must stop collecting the debt, or the disputed part, until it sends you verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment.^[24][25] Our debt validation letter guide explains what to ask for.

Searching for old debts can turn up accounts you had forgotten about, some of them many years old. Before you phone a collector about one, check how old it is, because what you say and do next can matter.

Most states set time limits of three to six years for suing over a debt, though some are longer, and the limit depends on your state and the type of debt.^[35] Once that time has passed, the debt is time-barred: a collector can usually still ask you to pay, but a collector must not sue or threaten to sue you to collect a time-barred debt.^[25][36]

In many states, making a partial payment, or acknowledging that you owe an old debt, can restart the time limit, even after it has run out.^[35] So when you contact a collector to find out about an old account, ask for information in writing rather than agreeing to anything, and do not make a "good faith" payment until you have checked your state's rule.^[35]

Your credit report helps here: it usually shows when an account first went delinquent, and that date also controls how long it can stay on your report. A collection or charged-off account can stay on your credit report for seven years. The seven years start 180 days after the missed payment that led to collection or charge-off, so a later payment, or the debt being sold to a new collector, does not restart them.^[13][14][15] Our time-barred debt guide has every state's limit, and our time-limit check does the arithmetic for you.

Once you have checked your three credit reports, any specialty reports that apply, StudentAid.gov, the IRS and your court records, put everything on one list. For each debt, note:

1. Who has it now, from the validation notice or credit report.^[6]
2. The amount they say you owe, and whether it matches your records.^[7][8]
3. The date of your last payment, to check the time limit with our time-limit check.^[25][36]
4. Any deadline: the dispute date on a validation notice, or a court date.^[37]

Deal with deadlines first: an open lawsuit, then any validation notice whose dispute period is about to end.^[28] For debts you recognize and owe, our guide to paying a collection agency explains how to check the collector, settle safely and get any deal in writing. For debts you do not recognize, or where the amount looks wrong, our free check tells you whether a dispute letter is worth sending.

If you are sorting out the debts of someone who has died, the rules are different: family members usually do not have to pay from their own money. See our guide to what happens to debt when you die.