@MarineVietVet wrote:
@Jammie wrote:Here's my question:How much does having an account in collections listed as unpaid affect your overall credit score? I had an dispute with Avis over a car rental. The car was returned 45 minutes late because my meeting was finished later. I called Avis and asked them if I would be charged for another full day or a prorated amount. I was told I would not be charged anything extra. This occurred in Fairbanks, AK in the dead of winter, where they weren't renting many cars. When I returned the car and got my receipt there was not additional charge for the app. 35 minutes it was late being returned. A couple of weeks later I received a bill from Avis for the full charge of another day. I called and talked to the local manager, who said the counter person didn't have the authority to make this decision. I fought with them for several months and then they turned to account over to collections, which brought the total bill from someway around $55 to $160. After fighting with the collection agency I just went ahead and paid the full amount they wanted. I asked how long it would be before the account was marked paid on my credit report and was told it would be about 2 weeks. This was almost two years ago. I need to buy a new car and need to get a small loan to make up what I can pay up front. Need to borrow around $3,000-$5,000. When I checked my credit report I found this account was still listed in collections as unpaid. The name of the collection agency cannot be found on the internet. I spent hours looking. I finally called the state division of licensing and they had a somewhat similar name that sounded familiar. I called them and they acknowledged that the account had been with them and had been paid in full. They told me they could not report it to the credit bureaus because they didn't have my SS number. I told them this was not true and it was their responsibility to report it as paid. They said what I had to do was file a dispute with each of the credit bureaus. That can take months to get resolved and I can't wait months to get a new car. I intend to report them to every legal and consumer agency I can find. But my question here is how much is this affecting my score? My score is only 611 because of student loan debt, which years ago I made a binding contract re payment and have kept to it, but the Alaska student loan agency keeps every month listing each of these 11 loans as being another month past due. Any advise or experience with how much something in collection affects your score would be greatly appreciate.
Hi Jammie,
A collection is scored the same whether paid or not so you don't need to pursue trying to get this to report paid although I completely understand why you want them to get it right.
I'm not sure anyone can accurately say how much this is hurting you. The recency of any negative item, like a collection, is one of the most heavily weighted factors within the most heavily weighted category of scoring — payment history — amounting to 35 percent of your score. The longer the time since the collection, the less negative impact it will have.
However scoring looks not only at the severity of negative items and how old they are but also how many negatives of all kinds are reporting at the same time. Those SL problems might be hurting you as much or more than the collection but I have no idea.
*Edited for spelling.
Agreed.
that being said, if you dispute the account there is a chance of no response and deletion.
You can also write a letter outlining the inaccurate reporting and demand deletion as they are in violation of FCRA .
You could also file a complaint with CFPB demanding deletion and request a cash settlement. Mind you no promise of financial relief but May pressure the deletion.
none of the above is quick.. But could help! With your SL reporting delinquent I don't see much to lose!
If you do get this removed (this may not improve your scores much as you have more recent derogs) you may want to look to have your SLs rehabbed to start seeing real improvements. Good luck!
@SGR wrote:I would also suggest disputing the collection account with the three CB's. Most likely the collection agency will fail to respond in the given time and it will be deleted from your report.
This is what I just did literally yesterday, granted these were IIB. We'll see what happens.
Personal:
OP , there are different things that can affect how much a collection will drop your score.
1. Age - the older it is, the less it's effect.
2. How many - if you have six collections and get a seventh, your score will drop much less than if you have zero and get one.
3. Current score - generally speaking, the higher your score the more having a collection added will drop it.
