Help us! We are about to take out a personal loan to pay off all accounts.

[stumlinson]

My husband and I have quite a bit of credit card debt between us.  Some of the accounts are closed with balances (which we are still paying on) and some are open and current.  Should we settle on the accounts that are closed and save some of our money to put on the open accounts or will that hurt our scores (not that much more damage can be done to the scores anyway).

Also, medical bills that are in collections...should I pay those in full or just settle with them as well since they are already bad marks on our report?

[GoodCredBen]

For those that are closed, have they been sent to collections? 

If they have, then i would attempt to send them a PFD (Pay for Deletion) and see what they say....

Needing more info atm though

[stumlinson]

There may be one in collections, the others are just closed with a balance that we are making a monthly payment on.  It's still in the hands of the OC. 

But as far as med bills...would you pay those in full (if they are in collections)  or would you try to settle with them?

[GoodCredBen]

med collections are less likely to delete (Though i have had one deleted, my one and only) but i would still try to do a PFD for everything in collections, and pay the rest in full, or whatever you can manage to pay in full....

If you cant pay them all in full, try to pay the largest ones first in full, so that you can take that payment off every month or whatever the schedule is. 

[IOBA]

1.   Pay all open accounts and keep them current.   (Helps FICO score the most.)

2.   Pay on all closed accounts.   (Keep them in good standing, always making payment, if the accounts are closed.)

3.   Pay all medical.   

What, if anything, is in collections?