Need help don' know where to start

[wantgoodcredit]

Let's just say my credit is horrible.  Eqiufax and Experian have me at around 455 and Transunion at around 515. I have zero current accounts.  Approximately between seven and nine accounts in collection.  The rest are charged off or open.  One account has a balance of around 5800.  It is hard to tell which accounts are still being reported as open.  I have stated paying some of the accounts off today.  I paid off three collection accounts.  Three other collection accounts I have payment plans set up.  Two of the companies agreed to do pay for deletions.  Will that raise my score.  What should I do to raise my score.  I desperately want good credit.  Any help will be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Your best bet is to start with the most delinquent account and get the creditor to agree to pay for delete and work your way down....the older a collection is the less (if any) it does for your credit to pay it off.

Also, paying a collection and not getting it deleted from your reports doesn't do any good other than give you a good peace of mind. I am not condoning not paying them...I just think that you should work with the CA's that are willing to work with you first and then go on.

Also go for the small ones first, that $5800 will be your monster that you work on last...in my opinion.

Message Edited by 1111mel on 11-13-2008 09:54 PM

[wantgoodcredit]

Ok, I was reading some other posts and they said to give as much info as possible. the one for 5800 is reporting as seriously past due on experian, trans union has it as collection and eqifax has it as past due; should i start paying on that one.; I do have to companies that have agreed to to deletion for payment.  Today I did pay off three items that were on my collections list. will paying all of this off really help. in total I have about 15k in debt. By April I should have about 4k of it taken care of. The two biggest are the one for 5800 and then there is another for 5918 that a lawyer has and I have been cooresponding with them to make a deal with the original creditor, they are not making it easy; I offered to pay the full balance if they would make the account current while I was making payments, with the stipulation that if I did not fulfill my end of the bargain they could mark it negatively on my report. They countered with after all payments were made they would make account current..What should I do.

[203bravo]

As mel stated a paid collection does not help your credit score.  It would be best to 1st learn who owns the accounts today and if it is still with the OC the paying those may help if they are showing a balance and thus factoring into your utl. 

If the accounts are reporting as Open then paying those would help in catching them up and then trying to GW them for the lates.

If a CA owns the account then the only good you will see if you can get them to PFD.  Keep in mind here however that the original CO will still show on your CR, but with a 0 balance and this could actually be helping if it was a older (more than 12-24 months) and it is factoring into the average age of your credit file.

It would be really helpful to read the sticky threads at the top of the forum for Understanding credit scorning and PFD advice.

Good Luck and remember that time is your friend as well.