Credit History and Outstanding Debts in Hungary
It appears all you have to do is submit a form. It might be better if she submitted it herself instead of you doing it on her behalf.  All natural persons (individuals) and non-natural persons (businesses)   are entitled to access and inspect the data held on record about them   in the Central Credit Information System (KHR).
this post offers great steps you can take to responsibly and effectively manage your existing line of credit. we believe that by carefully observing these guidelines, you will not only succeed in building and maintaining an excellent credit history but you will also avoid incurring pesky fees and charges usually imposed on delinquent unsecured credit cardholders. and do help us promote it by telling your friends to read and share it with their friends too! No.  I have several that I haven't used in a year or so (legacy of the time when they gave you money to sign up :-)), and credit rating's something over 800 last I checked. I have a few debts in collection. I do not care, I make very good money now, but I prefer to spend it on nice cars instead. In US after 7 years they do not affect your credit score. On the contrary, if you pay them they can ding your credit. That's what Susie Orman show says as well -- there is absolutely no point paying a debt that is more than 7 years old. The one big drawback I know is when you take the mortgage credit, your credit ability is calculated, and from that sum all of your credits are subtracted, and credit limit on credit card counts as credit...  I don't know if it is worldwide praxis, but at least it is the case in Poland. Since we seem to be discussing credit score and credit history interchangeably, if I can add credit report as the third part of the puzzle, I have another point. Your credit score and credit report can be effective tools to notice identity theft or fraud in your name.   Keeping track of your report will allow you to not only protect your good name (which is apparently in dispute here) but also those businesses who ultimately end up paying for the stolen goods or services. Absolutely nothing will happen. These credit history companies have no scruples and no reason to give a damn about consumers. Every recourse you have to fix inaccuracies in your credit history were won with legislation or litigation.  They don't care about you. "First of all, whatever you do, DON'T PAY!  Credit reporting agencies operate on aged records, and paying it now will most certainly not improve your score.  For example, let's say that you had an unpaid debt that was reported as a ""charge-off"" to the credit bureaus.  After, say, six months, the negative effect on your score is reduced.  It is reduced even further after a year or two, and after two years, the negative effect on your score is negligible. Now, say you were to pay the debt after the two years.  This would ""refresh"" the record, and show as a ""paid charge-off"".  Sure, now it shows as paid, but it also shows the date of the record as being today, which increases the effect on your credit drastically.  In other words, you would have just shot yourself in the foot, big-time. As others have noted, the best option is to dispute the item.  If, for some reason, it isn't removed, you are allowed to submit an annotation to the item, explaining your side of the story.  Anyone pulling your credit record would see this note, which can help you in some instances.  In any case, these scam artists don't deserve your money. Finally, you should check who is the local ombusdman, and report this agent to them.  She could lose her license for such a practice." This is not a finance issue, it is a legal one.  You need to talk to a lawyer. To save your credit you can pay off the bank now and fight out the details with your ex later.  The bank is still owed their money. Dunn & Bradstreet offers detailed credit reports on businesses.  They are not cheap, but they appear to have information on RIOCAN. You have not specified what country you are in. That radically changes everything. In case you are in Canada, there's a great blog that covers bankruptcy and student loans, at http://student-loan-bankruptcy.ca/. Fundamentally, in order to discharge government-backed student loans, you must have ceased to be a student for at least seven years prior to filing. Even then, though, the government can object, in which case you will still have to repay some or all of the loan. More generally, given that the collection agency appears to be operating in bad faith, you'll want to ensure that they send you written documentation of any offer they are extending you. If they refuse to do this, you should assume that they aren't actually offering you anything at all and you will have to pay back the full amount plus interest and penalties. Note that, in many countries, if you settle the debt (that is, pay anything less than the full amount plus interest and penalties), this will be a black mark on your credit report. In this case, if you repaid the full $16,000 and they forgave the extra $4,000, they would most likely still add a note to your credit report indicating that you did not pay the full amount that you owed, and this will negatively impact your credit rating even beyond your late payments. "It's not just that credit history is local; it's that it's a private business run for profit. The ""big three"" credit bureaus in the US are Experian, Equifax and Transunion.  They collect information on debt usage and abuse from various companies in the US, and charge a fee to provide that information (and their judgement of you) to companies interested in offering you further credit.  But there's nothing stopping a company from collecting international credit histories, or specialized credit histories either (for instance, there's a company called ChexSystems which focuses on retail purchase financing (mostly auto) and checking account abuse, while ignoring other types of lending). That being said, I don't know of any companies which currently collect international credit histories.  Perhaps in Europe, with more nations in close geographic proximity, there would be, but not in North America." From accounting perspective, an unpaid bill for internet services, according to the Accruals Concept, is recorded as a liability under 'Current Liabilities' section of the Balance Sheet. Also as an expense on the Income Statement.  So to answer your question it is both: a debt and an expense, however this is only the case at the end of the period. If you manage to pay it before the financial period ends this is simply an expense that is financed by cash or other liquid Asset on the Balance Sheet such as prepayment for example. For private persons you are generally given some time to pay the bill so it is technically a debt (Internet Provider would list you as a debtor on their accounts), but this is not something to worry about unless you are not considering to pay this bill. In which case your account may be sold as part of a factoring and you will then have a debt affecting your credit rating. Run your credit reports for the 3 major agencies to find out which of them have the debt was reported on and initiate the dispute process with each agency that reports the invalid debt. This will cause the person who put it on the report to either prove that it is valid or remove it from your report. Ignoring debt collector calls is not a good option, regardless of whether the debt is valid. They obviously think the debt is yours so their response is naturally to put it on your credit report. In most cases it is a good idea to respond in writing that it is not your debt. I doubt you have much recourse against the creditor. For one thing they DID try to contact you and you dodged them. That is not their fault. Secondly, it is unlikely you would prevail unless you could prove that they maliciously put false information on your credit or through gross incompetence did so. More likely is that they are mismatching you to a debt from someone with a similar name, or there is an accounting error somewhere. Or possibly you owe the debt and no one ever sent you a bill. It happens with medical bills all the time. It's misleading news. Comparing debt levels in nominal terms is completely pointless over a period of more than a few months.  The article you responded to quite literally quoted extracts from the article you subsequently posted and explained why they were misleading or incorrect. It won't hurt your credit rating. I wouldn't worry about it. The company can certainly pursue debt collections across borders but unless its a massive sum.. they will write it off. Now.. what the right thing to do is to take care of it... 1. for karma's sake and 2. so you don't make a bad name for foreigners.