To pay a charge-off OR Not to Pay a Charge-off?

[CreditDrama85]

paying a charge-off does absolutely nothing for your fico score. i paid 3 charge-offs in fully and thought i would see a boost in my score. months later, NOTHING. not even a little.

however, when my new credit cards ( 1 secured) reached 1 year. my score when up 37 points. so i would have to say that establishing new credit is more effective than paying a charge-off.

reasons you should pay a charge off are:

-its the right thing to do

-may make ur report look cleaner upon manual review

-you think the CA is going to start court proceedings or the account is placed with an actual law office and not a collection company.

Message Edited by CreditDrama85 on 09-21-2008 11:13 AM

[Anonymous]

paying charge-offs is a waste. if they wouldn't do a pfd for me, especially if i tried to negotiate payment options earlier, i would tell them to stick it you-know-where.

[Bella1980]

Yeah, paying them off helps not ONE little bit without a PFD...and even then it doesn't even always help that much. I recently had a $9000 Charge-off deleted from a credit report and my score went up FOUR points. It was also the most recent baddy on that report. And it is my lowest score to date still.

[Anonymous]

Paid charge offs do look better under manual review - it is important to remember that some banks still do more of a review than just looking at the FICO number. I also think it is important to emphasize that it is the right thing to do. I recommend you just be persistent with the goodwill letters, some people have mailed near a dozen before they had an effect. You never know when it will finally land in the hands of a sympathetic CSR or manager.