Past due effect on credit score?

[igids1]

I have two accounts that are not in collections yet, just being listed as "past due". With continuous 120 day lates. My question is, if I pay them off, so they not longer report as past due, does this help my credit score at all? I know paying them will look better with a manual review, but will paying do anything for the numerical scores?

[Anonymous]

If they dont go back and remove those lates they reported in the past then it will take quite a bit of time for you to recover, even if you pay on time every month.

[Shogun]

+1  Of course you don't want it to be CO'd and placed for collections.  You should get it caught up, or paid off and then send a GW.

[Jutz]

Haha, being past due DESTROYS your FICO score. I know this, because when I decided to finally check mine, I was past due a couple days on a CC payment. Dumb. When that updated as current I gained like 40 points.  FICO is a snapshot in time, so when you're past due, it's saying you're unable to pay your debts literally right now.

[jandj80]

I also had about a 40 point gain going from status "currently 120 days past due" to current. Even though the history was still bad, the account status showing 120 past due as of TODAY is far worse than showing "pays as agreed" today. Maybe you can GW them if you make like 6-12 months of perfect payments, they will delete the baddies? Its worth a shot.