EminMT

Correcting myself - "To get a confirmation that the account is settled" not paid in full :)

Thank you so much for your response. The creditors vary but mainly are credit cards of some sort or the other. The info on getting a paid in full letter is very helpful - all of these debts are so outstanding that they are already at the worst rating possible. While applying for a construction loan recently we were able to see these things on the report and she said it is way worse to settle vs paying in full which is different then what we've heard from everyone else. So I suppose I'll settle & be sure to get confirmation that it is paid in full. As far as the IRS goes - I don't know what to think about the way the government is doing things right now. We are already struggling (I was laid off over a year ago and am unable to find any work) & my fiance (who's credit we are talking about) is the only income we have. They are now forcing him to file a certain way which guarantees they get nearly 50% of his checks. We've never heard of this happening to anyone before but the IRS was sure to get their point across in a series of letters explaining their instruction to his employer (with no outstanding IRS debt - we just don't get it). At this point, it's just a struggle to get his credit cleaned up from a series of bad decisions he made when he was in his early 20's for about 6 months and trying to stay afloat. Anyway, thank you again very much for the advice we sure do appreciate it!