Credit Advice

Pay off and then file a dispute with all the credit score agencies. Once the collection is paid they will remove it from your report. However, the original account that went to collections will remain as negative on your report (if it was showing up on your report in the first place). Having one negative account is way better than having two even if they are both there for the same reason. If the original account was not reported (like my gym membership) than after the collection account is deleted noone will ever know if something bad happend to you.

What?

  My score has definately increased by having old accounts paid and deleted.  This is how I got several items cleaned up, first, I disputed just about everything on my report.  I was surprised how much fell off just by disputing.  Including a Sprint bill from 2009. Some old hospital bills, etc.  Then I paid all I could.  After I paid, I disputed again.  My experience has been once a collection agency has been paid in full they will not bother to respond to a dispute.  Then it automatically falls off.  My score has increased about 70-80 points. I have not yet been approved for new credit but after one attempt and denial, I decided to wait until I finish paying and disputing.  Trying to save myself the hard inquiries until I am failry certain I can get approved.   Good luck.  My journey started in Sept. 

How to dispute? I am really naive on this. I had few deregatory accounts. I paid/setteled them. It's been more thatn a year I did that. But I think they are still hampering my score. Is there any way I can make them go away from my account? Also, I have one deregatory account where I am making small payments every month. I still need to pay for 10 more months. Should I pay the rest in one go? Should I file any dispute after making the payment?

I have learned plenty from this site but one thing in regards to your question is you should pay slightly more then the minimum on any and every account you have. This reflects very positively on your credit! You should aslo pay off entirely any account you can as soon as you can starting with the one that is charging you the most in interest! These practices will save you tons of money and a headache or two!

 Can I ask you question on the Sprint  bill? I had an sprint bill as well and many  folks around me did  also. When  they had cange over form Nextel I had never recvied any notice nor  could I had locate them to pay off the bill.  I had since been contacted by an collection company and paid it off. I was  just wondering if any one else had hard time findig out to who to pay the bill too as well ?

contact ERC 1-800-586-0013 - this agency had my NEXTEL/SPRINT account from 2008.

Your advice is about the best i've heard. I am working on my collection accounts now. Thank You

where did u do this at because i have one in collections and i wat it get it off but do not know the proper place to do so

this is correct. i paid off several collection accounts and failed to get them to agree to delete the info. i disputed and only one of them deleted the info. it still showes negative. how ever my score has increased 40 points since, about three months ago

Would you write a letter and have them sign it to remove the collection? How can you really go about getting everything clear?

This is worth a shot, I tried it. I've never written so many letters in my life. But not a single collection agency agreed to delete the debt but one, NCO. All the others agreed to settle and mark the account "paid in full." 

So far I agree. I have had several items removed just by disputing them, others I wrote letters saying I would pay 50% if they deleted them. If they failed to respond or didn't accept I'd send a letter asking them to validate the debt, this actually worked, particularly in the case of DirecTV. But I haven't seen a great deal of positive movement in my credit score overall. I recently paid some accounts and disputed again, we'll see if that moves the needle further into the green. 

It wouldn't hurt.  But rather than call, send a certified letter for the request.  Paying the extra postage for certification will show that you are serious about getting it removed. Also, make sure you copy your letter.  That way you have a record of everything.

I'm not sure about the certified letter. I've heard that it usually back-fires.

you need to call the 3 major credit bureau and dispute it, if it still in your credit report! it is very important to review our credit report every year and look at all the descrepancies.

I am assuming you sent a check to the collection agency. If so, why don't you fax a copy of the cashed check and/or bank records to the credit bureaus?

medical bills stay on collection agency reports for seven years

I had a similar problem where the same account was showing multiple times.  I called up the credit bureau and asked them why 3 or 4 hits were there for it rather than just 1.  They said it should only be the original account's and the current loan holder's.  They then sent a dispute to both the collection agencies to insure that only the current one was marking the account.

I t should show paid at least. I would dispute it with the credit bureaus and let them resolve it.

so even if you pay it off and ask them to remove it it will still be there?  I was told by someone from expeiran that if i would pay off my hospital bills that went to collections, it would drop my credit score by 30 points then every year after on the payment date my score would drop a little more. Is there any way around this?

i am agree with you i paid all my collection account.  i just get my credit report and they all show paid collection i call Expedia they said still there until the date collection account was open i dont get it the main reason you paying is to be under a good standing and STOP PEOPLE calling you to paid in full. :(

If the account is close to the drop-dead date then there is probably no reason to pay it as it will remain on your report as "paid collection" anyway. Just let the account drop dead and then dispute it. However if the account is fairly recent and is going to be on your account for some number of years then it is best to first dispute it, it may drop just from this, if is doesn't then write the collection agency and offer to pay them 50% in exchange for them deleting the record (there are sample letters demonstrating how best to compose such letters). If they don't respond or respond negatively then write them another letter demanding they validate the debt (again, use examples found on the Internet). In the end if they still do not delete the account then pay it.  The "paid collections" you can have removed after the drop dead date as well, the difference hear is that it looks better to make a good faith attempt to pay your debts than to not. So it just depends on your situation and how long you think you can go until the negative marks on your account drop off. 

Unfortunately, I'd have to agree that Equifax is a hard case.  I had a situation where I had a missed CC payment.  It was turned over to collections. The bank that originally sent it to collections got bought out by a larger bank.   In the mean time, I had paid off the debt.  However, the original bank turned over records to the larger bank showing that I still owed the debt.  This happened two more times within the space of 2 years while I was trying to correct the problem with the credit reporting agencies.  Each bank reported it as a delinquent account that had been turned over to collections.  And each time one bank took over the other, they closed that account and opened a new one under the new bank's name.  This had the effect of "restarting" the 7 year period that negative reports stay on your credit report. I sent countless copies of the statements, receipts, bills, etc. to each new bank and filed a report with the credit bureaus.  The credit reporting bureaus then had to "verify" the information with the previous bank which was no longer in existence.   So the Catch-22 continued indefinitely until one bank held on to the account for a few years and it finally disappeared.

If the bank was no longer in existance, They couldnt verify, and ANY info they cant verify gets the AXE. Those should be deleted

Whoa, that is harsh. Sorry about that experience :(

I haven't had ANY negative experience with the credit agencies and I've disputed my report 4 times since Nov.2011 and today. As for the collection agencies when I paid them I had a letter stating they would accept a payment of "x" dollars as payment in full and agree to mark the record as "paid in full," I paid with a check or CC so I have a record of the exact payment for "x" amount. I put the letter with proof of payment and submitted it as a dispute and the agencies updated the accounts accordingly all within 30 days. Equifax is the easiest to deal with because a lot of stuff reported on TransUnion and Experian weren't even reported on Equifax, and Equifax showed items "paid" that weren't actually paid. I even attempted to use my Equifax report to dispute the other two unsuccessfully.  Bashing the agencies isn't helpful. Especially if you know your credit is jacked up by your own hand (and not identity theft for instance). They've all responded in a timely and fair fashion. That's been my experience. 

it depends on what they send. if you payed a settlement amount it could show on your report different ways.  i have one that shows "bad debt" even though it has a zero balance.  They offered me the settlement amount they should be satisfied with the debt but it doesn't always work that way.  another one shows account closed and balance zero but states paid less than original balance. 

 My understanding is that it will always show "0" balance if you took a charge off (settlement for less than the original amount) and it was reported to your credit report companies. However, that does not mean that it won't have a negative effect on your credit score.   I believe it still shows the amount owed if it goes into collections and is not resolved with the original company or the collections agency does not report your repayment correctly.

If you pay an account and it says something like that you can make a comment on your reports telling what happened for potential creditors to consider your side when making their decision. 

It depends, as you were paying off your debt were you closing the accounts it was linked to? If so that loss of available credit will negatively impact your account.

There is also a matter of the age of the debt.  All debts will age off your credit reports after a certain period of time (7-10 years).  Before just automatically going and paying off all your debt, you need to review what the debt is and how old it is.  If you have a debt that is written off or sent to collections, when you agree to a settlement or make a payment, that debt is brought current.   If most of the debts paid off were older and you paid them now, it will in fact affect your credit score in a negative manner. It's some times better to let older debts (over 5 years) go and not pay on them.  In a lot of cases they will be removed from your credit report after 7 years.  You should do your own research on this and make your own determination in a case by case manner.    My fiancee has several accounts that were sent to collections back in 2006.  By making a payment, it now makes the account current.  However if we leave the account as is, it will be removed from the credit report within the next 2 years. And as the above user noted, there is also the factor of closing old credit accounts.  When you close the credit or other installment account, this effectively lowers your available credit and will therefore lower your credit score because you now have less credit at your desposal.

Believe it or not, paying off your bills, like credit cards, will actually HURT your score.  The Credit companies WANT you to use your credit, just not abuse or be irrisponsible with it.  As a GREAT general rule, keep your balances around 30%, but no more than 50% of your limits.  Your score will jump as high as 30 points almost overnight.  Remember, keep your balances to LESS than 50% of your limit(s), and keep them there.  And watch how fast your score will climb. 

A lot of times you have to find a balance between addressing your old debts and trying to increase your available credit.  Yes adding additional credit (credit cards) will increase your credit score, but in some cases the cost of that credit card may come with some expensive fees and even more expensive interest rates.   If you have no credit or poor credit, you may need to bite the bullet and get a higher interest credit card to expand your credit line while you are continue to address your other credit issues.  I had to do this and every time I got the statement for the credit card, it was a monthly reminder to keep on track and do what I could to iimprove my credit and take care of older, bad marks.  Yes it takes some time, but it will be worth it in end.  I used this same approach when I started working on my credit about 7 years ago and had something around a 500 FICO.  However after these years and being very diligent, I have succeeded in raising my FICO score to over 760.. (written under my GF's account)

What happens if you go over 50% on your credit card but still pay it on time?Will it affect your score?