I have debt in the amount of $7000 that has been sent to collection agencies about three years ago. Two were credit cards, one a cell phone bill.
I desperately need to improve my credit score. Will it help if I start paying this debt to the collection agaencies? I read somewhere that it does not matter whether you pay collection debt off or not since they stay in your credit file for seven years anyways. Is this true? How important is it?
Also, what are other things I should do in order to improve my credit score at this point? At the moment I don't get approved for any credit due to my low score.
Any suggestions really appreciated!!!
A collection is a collection, paid or not.
The only way this will help your credit score is if the collection agencies agree to remove the negative entries from your credit report(s).
What happens is that if you pay with out deletion, the date of last activity is renewed when you make the payment. This drops your credit score and restarts the 7 year clock.
Send an offer in writing to pay if they agree to remove the negative entries. If they agree, pay as agreed. If they do not agree, or say they will but refuse to put it in writing, leave the debts alone. Time will remove the negative affect this has on your credit score. Only offer to pay what you can afford in a lump sum, they will not take payments if you are trying to get the entries removed.
Send all correspondence certified return receipt mail and never deal with collection agencies over the phone.
As of today, they stand to fall off your credit reports in 4 years (according to your estimate). Any payments, even partial will restart the 7 year clock, due to new activity. They will then fall off 7 years from the date the payment is reported. Why prolong the damage.
Try applying for Orchard Bank. They are among the best for rebuilding credit.
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