Collection

[Anonymous]

Hello Credit Gurus!

I have a a questions. Recently a collection was placed on my credit file.Originally this was from Quest Diagnostics for service back in 2010. I have moved since twice since then and it seems like they were sending the letters to the old address. Quest then forwarded to a collection agency. CA was sending correspondence to the old address as well. When I found out about the CO, I called the CA and they claim that they called me 16 times(never spoke to me or left a vm.). I told them that it is a very small amount($86) and I will PIF if they remove it from my credit file. But they only say that they will reports as paid in full but wont remove it. I told them that in that case I wont pay.

My question: How does it affect the score if I don't pay it off vs. if I do ( It will be reported as paid but wont be deleted.)

If I do pay, is there a chance that I can have this removed thru the CBs.

[Anonymous]

WoW! 14 views 0 replies!? Some help please??

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:

WoW! 14 views 0 replies!? Some help please??

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Patience.  Not everyone who views your thread necessarily has the experience or knowledge to answer your question.

[Lois5669]

Your score won't be affected if you don't pay or if you pay in full but they don't delete. Whether the status is paid or not paid, a collection TL scores the same.

With that said, a manual review of your CR will look better if it says "paid." Also, if you pay, you could then try GWing to have them delete.

[RobertEG]

If the debt is still within SOL, they may still resort to legal action.

If you dont pay, an unpaid bad debt may have future consequences, such is a mortgage app process, where a more thorough review of your credit file and history may uncover the old, unpaid debt, and aside from FICO scoring considerations, affect their lending decision.

CR exclusion does not necessarily mean that old, unpaid debt will never be seen again.  When asked in a loan app if you have any unpaid debt, how would you answer?

Under the FCRA 605(b) exemption, a mortgage lendor could, for example, still access the otherwise excluded information if you app for a loan having a principal value of $150K or more.

I would, particularly in view of the relatively small abount of the debt, take care of it.  But each acts according to their own risk assessment......