Deleting stuff from my credit report.

[stallworth]

OK I am fairly young and I am trying to clean up my credit. I currently have 5 collections on my report but they r paid off. Should I caontact Transunion to have them deleted or do I have to wait for seven yrs for them to fall off?

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

Don't dispute. There are three options in removing a paid CA:

1) Wait the 7 yrs.

2) Send them a GW or goodwill letter asking them to remove.

3) Send them a DV letter. Often a CA doesn't want to take the time or expense to verify so they may remove it. IMO, try this first.

Letter examples abound in these forums.

[stallworth]

What is a DV letter? Sorry to ask a dumb question and thanks for your response.

[llecs]

Debt Validation letter. Search for DV example in the search box and you'll find dozens of examples.

[meld9672]

So just to clarify -- you can DV *paid* collections?

[llecs]

---

meld9672 wrote:

So just to clarify -- you can DV *paid* collections?

---

Yep. I never sent a DV to a paid CA, but I would imagine you would have to modify the DV. I found these success stories a couple weeks ago within the first few minutes of looking.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=98692&query.id=764...

Message Edited by llecs on 05-01-2008 05:54 AM

[Anonymous]

Here's a question ... if you either let the paid CA drop off or DV/GW them to remove it, will the score actually drop? Isnt a paid better than not paid to your score? I have a few that drop off next year but they are paid.

Cujo

[FICOfit]

Any collection, paid or not, is bad.  If you get them removed your score should increase.

[kball64]

So if I DV a paid CA and they don't validate, do they have to stop reporting it to the CRA's? 

[Anonymous]

I would imagine so. I have a paid CA that I don't even remember having. The CRA verified, but I'm still vexed by it. The next step for me is to DV them.