I havent used or paid on my credit card balances in over 4 years...?

Credit card company collection agencies usually wait to sue you right before the item is due to fall off the report.

The thinking may be that you may be more financially stable years down the road.

When this happens, you can negotiate settlements.

Save up some money for this time.

Or... if you have a cash, to negotiate now, do so.

Get your reports for free at Annual Credit Report.com

No credit/debit card required. Don't pay for the score. Useless for what you need.

Ask here how to negotiate settlments (once you get your 3 reports).

If you are in the United States, you need to look up what the Statute of Limitations are for your state. In Missouri, the third party collection agencies have 3 years in which to collect the debt. After 3 years, the debt becomes too old to collect and they cannot sue you. If you receive any letters from a debt collection agency after the Statute of Limitations is over, then you simply have to mail them a letter that states that the debt is too old to collect on. Plenty of sample letters online.

The debt doesn't always fall off after 7 years, sometimes you have to write to the credit reporting agencies to have them remove the negative mark on your credit bureau. Remember credit rating agencies are a scam, they don't always do what is in your best interest. The Credit Rating Agencies get paid according to the Quantity of debt they rate, not according to the Quality of their ratings. The only way that they make more money each year is to increase the amount of debt that Americans are in.

Since credit rating agencies are a scam, you can always at any time dispute any negative marks on your credit bureau. If you have charge offs on your bureau because you haven't make a credit card payment for over 4 years then you just send them a dispute letter stating that that account is closed and is not a charge off. The credit rating agencies notifies the lender of your dispute. The lender has 30 days in which to respond. Since the lender after 8 months of default has likely boxed up your account and sent it to storage, they have little incentive to respond. After 30 days of no response, the credit rating agency must change the status from charge off to close which will improve your credit score. Sample letter are online, don't fall for the pay a fee scam.