Rebuilding Your Credit

[ilovepensacola]

Okay, So i'm a military dependent and I currently use my fathers GI bill for college. Last semester I dropped a course and later found out I had to repay VA for the class dropped.....No biggie. This week as I was going through junk mail I noticed another letter from VA stating that I owe 295 for housing allowance. Again not a big deal, but The letter was more than 2 weeks OLD! I assumed it was my receipt from my tuition payments and never opened. I called today and was told my account was sent the The Department or Treasury YESTERDAY! This makes me literally sick to my stomach. I have tried SOOOOO hard to keep my good credit score now this :-[. I could have easily paid them the 300 had I been smart enough to open the letter and read it 2 weeks ago when I got it in the mail. Well my biggest question is, what happens when accounts go to collections? Does this mean that the account will stay on my credit report for 7 years and ruin me? Or do I have a certain amount of time to pay them in full before my credit is destroyed? I called and the lady I spoke with said they'd give me until NOV 11th to pay them in full, but she didn't mention anything about it being on my credit report . They'll get thier money regardless because my account was sent to the Department of US Treasury. I'm pretty I'll have ZERO luck at trying to ask them to remove it :-/....I literally hate myself right now. 

[Shogun]

If it's not on your CR now, pay it.  Maybe they won't post it to your CR.    Don't fret over it just yet, just get it paid and keep an eye out on your CRs.