Opinion on GW for lates, entire TL or both..

[16paws]

I have a few questions I could use a little help on....Been try to clean up our credit report and have some serious lates, bad debt/collection status' that are dragging our scores down terribly.  My apologies out of the gate for so many questions to come...

First - if the status on an account states  Bad Debt/Collection, but is not listed on the collection part of the credit report, is it still treated score wise as a collection? 

 We have Four (yikes!!) Bad debt/collection status' on closed accounts from 2008 - where we went through some rough financial times and settled those accounts with letters stating settlement amount as full payment no further obligaton .  All four have serious derog marks for lates - 30's - 120's.  Are the lates bringing down the scores too, or is the status in itself doing enough damage?

Will GW'ing the lates on these accounts help?  (I realize it will still say Bad debt/collection)  Or would it be best to just ask for removal of the entire Tradeline?  Two of them are Chase, one is RBS and the last is Discover (although Discover states Paid as agreed in the status, but settled in the comments section).....Furthermore, what should I say in the GW letters?  As outlandish as it sounds - some day we would like to have at least the Discover card again - and what sucks is that card we had since 1998.. (although this time, using is wisely) ..Thanks all!

[RobertEG]

An OC can report current status on the OC account as placed for collection.  This status alone does not constitutue a collection.

Once an OC reports the account as having been placed for collection, and also reports the balance as $0, that tells you that they did not just place the debt for collection, but actually sold the debt to a debt collector.

Once the OC has refered the debt for collection, the debt collector can separately then decide whether and when to report their activity to the CRAs. 

Once the debt collector reports, this sets up an entirely new "account" in your CR.

Paying any debt does not in and of itself ever remove prior derogs in your CR.  Statement of account status as to the debt is not what FICO scores.  It scores the derogs.  The derogs can cumulatively include the monthly derogs on the OC account, any CO done by the OC, and/or reporting of a CA by a debt collector. To obtain deletion of any of these derogs requires separate agrrement to GW deletion by the party who posted the derogs.

Normally, you dont want to ask for GW deletion of the entire TL.  It probably has some good stuff in there, such as age of its credit history.  Deletion of the bad stuff is normally the goal.

Just remember in writing a GW to show that your prior rough times have been overcome by actions, and try your best to also show how their grant of GW will be to their future benefit.  Make them want your future business.