The damage is done when accounts get charged off / sent to collections so paying them off isn't going to bump up your score, maybe a little bit if the collection agency was reporting each month and that will stop since it has been off. But it is good in the fact you have paid them off for your own personal sake ( you elimnated a nagging debt out of your life and no longer have to deal with CA anymore)
Paid in Full V. Settled for less amount has become something of a debate on this board. I personally subscribe in the idea that Paid in Full always looks better than Settled for less. This goes without saying that you can afford to Pay in Full either upfront or with a payment plan. To some future potential lenders, they may not give a darn but to alot of others it does look better to them. And in some case in may be the difference in percentage points on a car loan or mortgage.Also,depending on the amount you settled on you could have to pay taxes on it anyway. But it also depends on your financial situation, in some cases it just maybe better to settle if you can't afford to pay in full. but I always like to advise if you have the means to pay it off in full why take the risk of what some lenders might frown upon or not.
As advised by the other poster, if you are currently going to try to get a charge off/ collection resolved, try to get Paid for Deletion from your credit report. They can be very difficult to get but some have done it through hard work and being very persistant. Also though, you have to realize that you just may not be able to get one and you have to know when to just move on and just get it paid off. Totally refusing to pay them will put you at risk of being sued for judgment and then can garnish your wages and seize your bank account.
For the ones that have been paid off, you can try a good will letter or some have even waited a while like 6 months to a year and disputed it on their report. If the creditor or collection agency doesn't verify or doesn't get back to the CRA, it will be deleted. I have heard that when disputing a Credit Card, the best time is to dispute during the Christmas season, I guess they are too busy to try and look up an old charged off account. And with Collection Agencies, I've heard during tax season, since that is their Christmas to them to try and get people to pay from their refunds and are too busy trying to get the newer debts collected then to waste time looking up an old paid off account.
but the one thing you have going for you is you are young and like everything else time heals all wounds, the same applies to your credit. Just keep your debt to a minimum, don't take on too many credit cards, and use them wisely and SAVE SAVE SAVE, get an ING account or something like that for your future. I hope this helps and good luck.
