Should I Pay Off Collection from 5 1/2 years ago?

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

6 1/2 years ago I had surgery for a cancerous tumor. My employer's health insurance company went out of business right after that. Claims that should have been paid 100% went to collections instead. I've never been contacted by these collection agencies over the years because they are pending litigation between my former employer and the the people who ran that insurance company.

It has been affecting my credit ever since. I tried to hire a lawyer to help, but it seem he couldn't do much except for keep an eye on the progress of this other lawsuit. It seems all my other collections have dropped off of my credit report. I only have two left:

1. SCA Collections for 965.00

2. SCA Collections for 543.00

I'm wondering if I should just call and pay them off and be done with it? I tried to call once and ask if I could settle for less but they just said, "we don't negotiate". Is there some other way to go about this? Do I just pay in full and ask if they can remove them from my credit report? Do I just wait another year and a half and expect them to drop off my credit report?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

RobertEG · ‎03-06-2017

A primary factor is whether you now have, or expect to have, a requirement to have no unpaid, delinquent debt.

Credit report exclusion does not discharge the debt, and does not actually delete the collection from your actual credit file.

A typical example is that some mortgage underwriting requirements include payment of any unpaid, delinquent debt.

However, medical is often excluded.

I would, if planning to apply for a mortgage, check out the underwriting criteria of the lendor or type of loan.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
6 1/2 years ago I had surgery for a cancerous tumor. My employer's health insurance company went out of business right after that. Claims that should have been paid 100% went to collections instead. I've never been contacted by these collection agencies over the years because they are pending litigation between my former employer and the the people who ran that insurance company.

It has been affecting my credit ever since. I tried to hire a lawyer to help, but it seem he couldn't do much except for keep an eye on the progress of this other lawsuit. It seems all my other collections have dropped off of my credit report. I only have two left:

1. SCA Collections for 965.00
2. SCA Collections for 543.00

I'm wondering if I should just call and pay them off and be done with it? I tried to call once and ask if I could settle for less but they just said, "we don't negotiate". Is there some other way to go about this? Do I just pay in full and ask if they can remove them from my credit report? Do I just wait another year and a half and expect them to drop off my credit report?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

I actually had something removed from my credit report because it was a part of pending legal proceedings. I disputed them by mail and provided all of the paperwork regarding the lawsuit.

It has never come back.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

What I did was pay off my old collections, I am not sure what FICO impact it had if any doing so but I have to believe that creditors that take a closer view look at a paid collection differently then open but I could be totally wrong. At 5 1/2 years you are probably close to of past the legal statute of limitations and they will be removed from your reports in a year and a half so its not a no brainer. I suppose it depends on your goals for the next 18 months. If your going for a mortgage they will probably want them paid. If your not then it might be better to leave them alone. I did have a CC that went to collections, didn't hear from them for years and right before the SOL I got served with a lawsuit, I quickly paid that one to avoid a judgement. Thats something to worry about but with the amounts fairly low you might be fine.

Anonymous · ‎03-07-2017

I'm currently buying a home and I just had a to write a letter explaining the situation. I've actually purchased two homes and refinanced once with this on my credit. It has affected me, but not terribly. I would have gotten a better rates with a better FICO score, but for this purchase it is too late now as we close in a couple of weeks. I don't forsee taking a loan in the next 18 months so I'm thinking I may just let these expire.

I used the contact form on SCA's website to ask about paying them off last week but no one responded or tried calling me. I'm wondering if they are not allowed to call me because they are flagged pending litigation. Even when I tried calling them, about 6 months ago they wouldn't even look up my account to get information. The person I spoke with was very short and rude so I changed my mind about paying them off figuring I guess they didn't want my money.