Hello.
I have/had a cell phone with At&t wireless from January 2008-Dec 2011. Unfortunately due to the downturn in the economy, I lost major money on my paychecks, and eventually my company shut down due to slow sales. They reopened in April, only to close again in November. Unfortunately, my cell phone bills ended up taking the "hit". I was able to pay my other bills with stretching the pay dates, but went under water with AT&T.
Here is my question: AT&T was never on any reports from the 3 agencies until the account went late and closed. Now all 3 are reporting, which obviously lowers my score. I want to get this resolved as quickly as possible, including paying it off(which I couldnt do last year but in 2012 am in a better financial position to do so). However, if I pay for deletion, the credit that was never there disappears. If I do nothing, it sits for 7 years dragging me down. I worked hard to rebuilt from a 431 to 571, with one last negative bill to resolve and now this hits me. Is there a way to pay for a "satisfactory paid and account closed" line so I can keep the 4 years of steady credit, or should I PFD?
If you can think of anything else please let me know, these are the only two good possibilites i came up with.
