Collection Accounts Advice Needed

[timeforrepair]

Hello All,

 Just joined and I thank everyone in advance for any help. I am starting to rebuild my credit after a few tough years. I have 7-8 Collection accounts all under $1,000 that are from Cell Phone Bills, Power Bills, Medicals ( 4-5 of them ), etc. I have read about not paying the ones that show as older collections ( by older I mean 2-3 years ) because the new activity will drop the score. My question is...I have 5-6 that show the balance owed as a current  " Past Due " not all report this way but several due. Should I pay these first, because it seems to me that having them show as " Past Due" is a double hit on the score as a collection and also as past due. Last question can they really list it as Past Due? What I mean is a current past due, which is how it appears. THANKS!

[guiness56]

A CA cannot report lates or a past due amount.

Paying a collection account, if coded properly, should never impact your score, in either direction.

Do they show a DoFD?  And are they outside of your states suing SOL?

If they are, send the CA a DV.  If they validate, send them a PFD.

You can look through the links in my signature to help you understand abbreviations and general credit information.

Have you pulled your free reports from annualcreditreport.com?  You get a free one from each CRA every 12 months.

[timeforrepair]

Hey..yes they are all outside the 3 years SOL for NC. I have tried DV and PFD several times over the last 2 years with no response.. Should I send a letter to the CRA's having the past due balance's deleted from the file? or Should i pay the CA wait a month or two then contest it the CRA's hoping they dont respond?

[RobertEG]

I would never advise not to pay a debt simply because the reported collection is old.

Until satisfied, the debt lives forever as delinquent, unpaid debt, and even if the collection ultimately is excluded after 7 yrs/180 days, it is still in your history, and could come back to bite you if a potential creditor becomes aware.  You can always choose not to pay delinqunet debt and rely only on credit report exclusion as a shield against others becoming aware of its presence, but you do so at your risk of discovery by other means, such as a simple question upon application for new credit as to whether you have any old, unpaid delinquent debt.

If any debt has been referred for collection and remains unpaid, the OC account may show no balance due to them if the debt has been purchased by the debt collector.

You are not "past due" with a debt collector, you simply have a reported, open collection with unsatified debt.  If the OC account shows no balance, then the amount reported by the debt collector represents both the amount under their collection and the fact that the debt is owed to them, not the OC.

Bottom line is that if you know you have not paid the debt, it remains a delinquent debt, and one or the other can report the balance as debt.  Any inconsistencies in reporting can be corrected, so wont be basis for deletion of the collection.

[timeforrepair]

Thanks Robert..That make sense!