Can My Credit Score Be Affected If I'm A Member Of An Llc With Uncollected Debt?

by Dale
(Rocky Hill , CT)

I received a letter from a debt collector saying I owed over $500 from a partnership that was dissolved over 3 years ago. My partner never paid the bill and here it is, 3 years later, AT&T trying to get the money from me. It is not addressed to me personally, but to the LLC name. Can they report me to the credit bureau as uncollected and hurt my credit score? Or can they only go after the LLC?

Answer from DebtCollectionAnswers.com

Dale,

It depends on whether there was a personal guarantee on the account when it was opened. The way to tell that is to look at the original account agreement, if that's available.

If there was no personal guarantee, then the collector will have to try to collect from the LLC and, if it's dissolved, they may be out of luck. But often small business accounts carry a personal guarantee which means they can go after the owner personally.