Not sure if I should put this in Mortgage thread or Rebuilding thread...please move if need be...
I've been working very hard on cleaning up my credit over the past year so that I can qualify for a mortgage in this lifetime, and my last baddies were three judgments that I had from Cap 1 from 2008. After interest over the years, the total was $6800. I was able to settle these with the CA for $4500. However, they won't file a motion to vacate (it was worth a try, although I didn't really expect they would...), and the tradeline will list "Settled" instead of "Satisfied". Is this better than nothing, when a future loan gets into underwriting? Or should I really pursue something like GW'ing?
Starting Score: 700
I'm no expert but I think having anything showing that you've paid it is always better than showing you still currently owe on it. It probably won't bring your score up unless it's removed but at least it's taken care of. Hope this helps and any experts please correct me if i've said anything incorrect.
Starting Score: 03/29/2013 540 EQ 05/01/2013 614 TU 05/30/2013 606 EX (Lender Pull)
Make sure that they have agreed to post a satisfaction of judgment with the court and you will be fine. I settled a judgment for about 60% of total value. As soon as they filed the satisfaction I was good to go for my mortgage. If they don't file a satisfaction that means that they (or someone else) could still come after you for the remainder and a mortgage lender is not going to accept that risk.
Starting Score: 500's
You can goodwill if you would like, but frankly it won't matter. With something that old, the UW will probably ignore it anyway, assuming the rest of your report is clean and you qualify based on the other requirements. Paying off old collections doesn't help your score unless they agree to delete upon paying. The only reason it is helpful in this process is because in some cases, the UW will require old debts to be paid off at closing to ensure no liens are placed on the home. If they agree to delete, that is great, but I wouldn't hold off on apping because of it.
It was a judgment, so I had to get it paid before I could app. The confirmation letter they emailed me cited that it would be listed on the credit report as Settled in Full, so I guess that helps. I'm just soooo glad that this is taken care of. This was the biggest issue I had against me, and now that it's cleared, I can move on to the next step. 