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Checkout workers are almost uniformly asking for zipcodes now.

Not in California

If the last payment on your debt was nine years ago, what they did was against the law in every US state. The longest statute of limitations for revolving accounts is 8 years in Wyoming. Every other state is 3-6 years. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml

I've had good luck reporting companies to the Better Business Bureau if their customer service is highly uncooperative. I was receiving unsolicited credit card offers from Citi, even though I'd signed up for the permanent do-not-sell list. Their customer service couldn't tell me who sold them my information, but after talking to the BBB, I got a call from someone higher up who let me know Equifax had sold it to them.

I had much worse issues with Alienware, whose customer service was atrocious. I eventually had to go to both the BBB and the Florida Attorney General's office, but they finally swapped out my lemon of a laptop for a new one.

i can see a system developing to compensate for people switching people on disconnect, after this happens enough they will tighten up loopholes. it is as easy of putting you on a list if you are booted from one ISP for downloading content the RIAA claims copyright to, using p2p, or even exceeding your bandwidth caps.

in the past people used to rack up lots of bounced checks, then switch to a new bank. now, the banks subscribe to chexsystems and if you fuck up once you won't be able to get an account from any member bank after that.

i am sure that the RIAA would love to maintain a list such as this. we don't need a 3 strikes law in the states, all it will take is a private system to blacklist users.

I think for the most part they're tracking general tendencies. What topics come up most often in search boxes. Which links do users follow the most on our website. What kinds of products do users look at on each visit (used often on sites like Amazon with their "other people also looked at these things" ads). I suppose they could track your surfing habits on their site if you create an account there and login regularly. Beyond that it's just cookies, you can set most browsers to delete them automatically on close. I don't see why this is such a big topic on the internet. The same thing has been happening for years now with those membership cards in most supermarkets, warranty cards, credit cards and so on. If you keep getting "pre-approved" credit cards in the mail it's because your credit bureau has been whoring your information out to the highest bidder, you can usually 'opt out' of things like this.

There are statute of limitations for debt that it is worth checking. It looks like student loans are exempt but you say that this is a grant, not a loan.

This is definitely worth knowing about as there are some bad debt collectors out there. Last year we were contacted about a ten year old debt that had been racked up from $30 to over $1000 including interest and fines. Invoking the statute of limitations got rid of it. Note that apparently, you should not offer to pay any of the debt otherwise you might be confirming the debt and they could come after you for the full amount (IANAL but this is my understanding).

Some good links:
http://www.cardreport.com/laws/statute-of-limitati ons.html
http://www.cardreport.com/credit-problems/time.htm l
http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/statue-limitat ions-explained.html
http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/SOL-by-State.h tml
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLim itations.shtml
http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_sol.html

I've had a merchant account for about a decade, and worked in retail management for two and a half. Argue semantics all you want, I know what the agreements say.

Again, I prefer to avoid doing business with companies that can't keep their promises.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/cards/crcd_buy.sht ml, is simply wrong (or at least 15 years out of date) on at least one point. It is illegal to require a phone number on a credit card purchase. It's illegal to even have a box labeled "phone number" on the charge slip. This is federal law, and has been for at least 15 years. (They're also badly out of date on credit card numbers written on checks, and on mail order regulations.) So I find that source less than credible. I find you less than credible, as well.

Discounts for cash vs credit card are a violation of the merchant's agreement with the credit card company. I prefer not doing business with retailers who can't keep their written promises.

And I prefer to listen to advice from people who know what they're talking about.

All Visa/MC agreements strictly prohibit advertising a price that reflects a cash discount, and then charging a credit card surcharge on top of it. While I can't prove that this is the case for all agreement, there is nothing in some agreements to prevent offering a cash discount, which was the case with the giant-mega-corp I bought my laptop from. Here are three article on this subject I found in only minutes of searching:

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/cards/crcd_buy.sht ml
http://www.wachovia.com/corp_inst/page/0,,44_45%5E 2111,00.html
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3 22415

Here's a little flow diagram to help you sort out the debt validation process.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_valid ation_workflow.shtml

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcrajump.htm

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.htm

Electronic Credit Repair Kit (tm)
http://www.mix6.com/credit/

I would just send them a cease and desist letter. They are not going to bother to get a judgement in court for $12!
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=cease+and+desist &num=10&hl=en&c2coff=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=& as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=doc&as_qdr=a ll&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off

Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus: You can protect yourself from identity theft by taking your name off of the credit bureaus mailing lists. The credit bureaus are one of the biggest offender when it comes to selling your name and information to the credit card companies who in turn send you all those pre-approved applications. One call to the Opt Out Request Line (for Equifax, Trans Union, Experian and Consumer Credit Associates) is all it takes to permanently remove your name from all marketing lists that the credit agencies supply to direct marketers. You can also opt for a two-year period, renewing your request at any time in the future.

1-888-567-8688

Sorry for the AC post. You can contact the Federal Credit opt-out phone number and specify that you do not want to receive pre-approved credit card offers. Here is a link to some info about how to get out of them.