Old collections

[Anonymous]

I have been working on my credit and have learned a lot from everyone here.   I'm at a point where I would like the opinions of the experts who have made it past this part of the journey.   

I have 6 medical collections left. (Not sure they are mine)  now I could try to get validation and pay them, but most of them will be off within the next 6-9 months due to dofd on my reports

I know with them all paid at least my fico 9 would go up, but in 6-9 months all but one would be gone anyways

What would you do?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have been working on my credit and have learned a lot from everyone here.   I'm at a point where I would like the opinions of the experts who have made it past this part of the journey.   

I have 6 medical collections left. (Not sure they are mine)  now I could try to get validation and pay them, but most of them will be off within the next 6-9 months due to dofd on my reports

I know with them all paid at least my fico 9 would go up, but in 6-9 months all but one would be gone anyways

What would you do?

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Im not sure what kind of luck you will have with EX & EQ but for the collections that are 6 months out on TU you can get them to do early exclusion for those accounts.

Now im not 100% on this but unless you are trying to get a loan or something i would wait the rest out because even if you pay the CA the debt will still show up on your credit file it will just change the status to account paid/closed...

Maybe a vet member will chime in on this and confirm the part of waiting them out VS paying the CA's off.

Best Of Luck

~ Shawn

[Anonymous]

How important is it to knock them out now versus waiting?

What credit are you seeking that can't wait for them to naturally fall off?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
How important is it to knock them out now versus waiting?

What credit are you seeking that can't wait for them to naturally fall off?

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Mostly I would like to get them off of there just because I'm rebuilding and I'd love to see my score improve even more (yes I'm impatient, but that a whole different post lol) I've gained a 120-ish points in the last 6 months and get excited about watching that number climb.  At the same time, it would save me around 1k to just cool my jets so that where this debate and opinions of other respected vets on here comes into play

So I'm not really seeking an more credit at this point, but life happens and you never know when you will need something, so it's partly a planning thing. Trying to do the whole being an adult thing. 

[Anonymous]

Most adults nowadays are running balances for 4 years and paying insane interest to do it!

Better to attack it like a math professor!

If there's no cost benefit, patience is worth it. Seeing scores go up is fun but waiting 6 months and saving the anxiety of disputes and negotiations is probably worth it. You've come this far and the end of the baddies is in sight! I'd say let them fall off in spring and have an exciting (but financially responsible) summer with great scores!

[RobertEG]

Waiting for credit report exclusion does not discharge the debt.  However, it places a shield over the unpaid collection, preventing others from becoming aware of its existence.

In many cases, potential creditors would rely only on review of your credit report to become aware of the unpaid, delinquent debt.  Thus, credit report exclusion could be relied upon as effectively hiding the debt.

However, it is still possible for potential creditors to become aware of the continued lack of payment of the delinquent debt by means other than a normal pull of your credit report.  They can, if the requested amount of credit is $150K or more, request a full-factual credit report under the provisions of FCRA 605(b), which can still show the collection. More commonly, they may simply ask for a disclosure of any unpaid delinquent debt as part of their application process, which would obligate the consumer to disclose the debt.

Additionally, if the unpaid debt is also reporting as a judgment, it may still be included in your credit report, and will also be discoverable via a public records search outside of simple reliance on your credit report.

Paying removes any remaining issue of an unpaid, delinquent debt continuing to affect future quests for credit.

The degree to which that issue may actually arise cannot be predicted in advance........

[AverageJoesCredit]

Hey Jago22, sorry i havent been around been caught up in the aftermath of H. Maria. Looks like you're getting some solid advice so far. Waiting for them to fall off seems like a nice plan but maybe be prepared to pay them off if they arent too much and they are yours. This way if they pop back up at least you know you fulfilled your part. Sorry my experience with medical collections is limited. You are doing great on your rebuild though, nuce to hear from ya

[Anonymous]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Hey Jago22, sorry i havent been around been caught up in the aftermath of H. Maria. Looks like you're getting some solid advice so far. Waiting for them to fall off seems like a nice plan but maybe be prepared to pay them off if they arent too much and they are yours. This way if they pop back up at least you know you fulfilled your part. Sorry my experience with medical collections is limited. You are doing great on your rebuild though, nuce to hear from ya

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Oh wow, that's crazy hope everyone and everything is okay.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Most adults nowadays are running balances for 4 years and paying insane interest to do it!

Better to attack it like a math professor!

If there's no cost benefit, patience is worth it. Seeing scores go up is fun but waiting 6 months and saving the anxiety of disputes and negotiations is probably worth it. You've come this far and the end of the baddies is in sight! I'd say let them fall off in spring and have an exciting (but financially responsible) summer with great scores!

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@Anonymous...  I have been using the AZEO method you helped me with, so I don't really have an debt currently other than a few dollars on one card.  My scores won't go up till I pay, or they fall off. It would leave me with a clean EQ, which could greatly help with NFCU and Penfed, as I believe they are both using Fico 9 now.

@RobertEG..  I would agree that if they are mine I need to pay them, but I'm not sure and I really don't want to pay something that isn't mine.   I will work on that part at least, but info agree with your point on this as well