Slate nearly clean with one collection account still open. Try for Paid to Delete ?

[distantdigi]

Hello,

Long time lurker first time poster. The short and sweet, I royally screwed up my credit with a ridiculous car loan, lots of small lates and multiple collections. I went to work overseas for a couple years and since returning have strictly lived off cash since; well since I can remember. 

Now in my early thirties it would be nice to have established credit and really make strides for a better financial outlook. I have been on the forums here for a while looking around and putting everyone’s ideas into practice. Now I am down to one account, in collection, but shows as a closed account on EQ report. It is dated to fall off this November and I wanted to try and work with the collection agency on a Paid to Delete. 

Collection is for a small student loan of principle $1600 plus interest. I have never gone down this road before so I was wondering if it would even be worth it, or should I wait until November when it falls off? 

Also with it removed I will literally look like an 18 year old since I have absolutely nothing within my credit history. I make over 100k and walk to work since it is less than a 1/4 mile down the road. Starting from ground zero with high income, should I try for such cards as the Chase Freedom and beg for a low CL to start? I have banked with them for over 3 years now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[InvincibleSummer3]

Welcome!

Do you know what your scores are? Even with a great income, not having a history is going to be an issue. It would help if you knew where your TU and EQ scores were sitting. Worst-case scenario, you could always do a secured card for a year or so....

ETA: Is your student loan a federal loan?

[guiness56]

Collections do not count toward AAoA so getting it removed will only help your score.

[distantdigi]

Scores are all low 600's, 601-605. TU shows two accounts while EX and EU only show one and it is a federal loan.

As for AAoA, this will fall off 11/2013 so will getting it in good standing benfit my file as a whole before that date? 

Also, I only have 1-2 HP's a year. One for apartment lease the other when I try to get some kind of store card and denied. 

[guiness56]

If you are talking about a collection account from a 3rd party CA, those do not count in AAoA and will still come off your report in Nov, paid or not.

[InvincibleSummer3]

Is your federal loan defaulted? You might consider rehabbing if it's a defaulted federal loan. Rehab refers to a program where you agree to make regular payments over a nine-month period, and at the end your loan they remove the default notation and report "pays as agreed" all the way back to the default date. I was in a position where I had collections but no current credit history, so getting a good tradeline with several years of reported on-time payments was extremely helpful. Just something to consider.

[distantdigi]

The current balance is only $2,400 all in. Honeslty I want to pay and have it done with, but it would be nice to have it completly removed once I pay the entire balance off with one payment. 

The other items that went into collections I paid and then disputed a month later. In the end they just removed everything and this is the only account I have left good/bad.

[InvincibleSummer3]

You can certainly try for a PFD. Uncle Sam's sometimes iffy about the deleting part, but it could work.