Credit Advice

Paying your bad accounts (collections/charge offs) doesn't remove them from your report.  It simply changes the "status" of the account from unpaid to paid.  The negative account is to remain on your report for up to 7 years. As the account ages, the less of an impact to your score.  BUT, if you plan on paying the collection, you will have a 1 time opportunity to have the account deleted permanently.   When making payment request a "Deletion Letter" from the collection agency.  Not all will give you one, but some do. With the deletion letter you can have the account permanently removed from your credit report. Contact me if you need more info through my profile.

I had a small student loan that was reported on each of my credit bureaus five times.  The paperwork on the loan had been lost for nearly fifteen years. The account was listed as paid and closed once and as over 180 days late four  times. Getting the different departments dealing with student loans to communicate with each other is virtually impossible and getting the credit bureaus to correct it was as equally frustrating. Luckily for me I keep documents forever. I finally went to the Obudsman for the Department of Education. Now the loan is showing four and five times on each of the credit reports as paid/closed. It was not my error the when they reported them as derogatory and its not my error that they are reporting it as in good standing four and five times. This occurred, because the loan was erroneously put in default satus and passed between agencies several times. For years it counted against me; now they're being reported in my favor. The point is beware that accounts considered delinquent can be sold and reported over and over again. This happens frequently between collection agencies. They even try to pass them around between collection agencies (much like a shell game) if they know you are about to declare bankruptcy. Its a method used by businesses to get around bankruptcy laws.