Paying a Delinquent Debt

[casalsrc]

I have a debt that went to a collections agency.  I want to pay the debt, can I pay the original creditor to get it off of my credit report, or do I have to deal with the collections agency?

[llecs]

If the OC doesn't own the debt, then paying them won't make the CA go away. If anything the CA would update as a paid CA and that would only hurt your score.

If you have the $$$ to PIF, then I'd suggest contacting the OC first to see if they own it. If they do not, then there's not much you can do on the OC's end. One good indicator to see if the CA owns it is if the OC reports and reports a $0 balance.

If the CA owns it, then send a DV letter to the CA. If the CA verifies and you agree, then fire off a PFD. If accepted, pay and they will delete.

[casalsrc]

Thank you.

[wally2159]

so paying off a CA in full HURTS your score?

[llecs]

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wally2159 wrote:
so paying off a CA in full HURTS your score?

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Usually. Depends on how it is reporting. Paying a CA will never help your score unless they delete via a PFD.

Like with PRs, the presence of the CA is the damage. It doesn't matter if you owe $0 or $10,000, the damage is equal. Whenever a payment is made to a CA, the CA will update the DOLA and reported date fields on your CR. FICO looks at that date change and can ding you a bunch if there was a long distance in time between the old dates and the new dates.