Will paying old collections help my score?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are trying to buy a house and we need to raise his scores about 50 points to get this done.  I have the money to pay off all of our old collections.  There are 10 collections, all over 2 years old with an aggregate balance of around $2500 total.   If I pay these off, will it raise his scores at all?  I've read where it can actually hurt his scores.  Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[ktl72455]

I would try to work out a settlement and Pay for delete (PFD) so they agree to remove it from your credit report after its paid otherwise you will have to send them good will (GW) letters later asking for them to remove, some will , some wont.

Do you have any open credit cards? If yes, are the balances high or low on them? If they have high balances, paying them off or way down is the fastest boost in score.

Take time, dont rush and read the forum, lots of good information and helpful people! I paid off old collections thinking it would help and becuase of the traditional way of doing it, I made it harder on my self to clean my credit up. That was before I was here on the forum.

[eastexascout]

Of course I'm not an expert, but I have a small experience.

I have one medical collection.  The lady called the other day talking about a mini-payment plan.  Towards the end of our conversation she said that paying off the collection should boost my score.  Now how much, how long it will take, etc....is another story. 

So I don't see how it can "hurt" your score.  Of course every situation is different.

[TrishN]

paying off CA is hurting your score by few pts to 20 pts, and time will improve your scores

here is why.

ex: CA opened on 2008 and reported on 2008. now you paid CA 01/2013. thay will bring CA reported from 2008 updating 01/2013. Paid off CA is always good for manual review.

if you want to increase your score, you need to do PFD( pay for delete) to remove it out your credit report.

* paid or unpaid CA still drop off your CR 7 years+180 days from DOFD.

[ktl72455]

Even if it reports a 0.00 balance its still a collection on your credit report so still hurts, just not as bad if it had a balance. Its best if you can get them to agree to remove it all together upon payment.

With my medical bills I paid the Original Creditor (OC) and sent the CA a notice of payment and asked them to remove it from my credit report and they did. I am not sure they are all that nice and willing but it may have been becuase they were medical bills.

[shasta]

I would definitely ask for a pay for delete is possible, but in my experience, it helps to have a zero balance. There have been instances when I was getting an apartment, getting cable, etc and they had to run my credit. It was a lot easier to explain zero balances. When I tried for a home loan a couple of years ago, I was told that my baddies weren't so bad because I had made the effort to pay all of them off.

Just my 2 cents

[Anonymous]

Ok,so I had sent letters a few weeks ago asking for PFD.  Only one agreed and I mailed off payment today for that.  So, is it better to go ahead and pay the others and pray they will remove them with a GW request, or wait and see if I can get a mortgage and pay them at closing?   

[Shogun]

Is that your first round of PFDs?  I'd send another round.   Oh, and congrats on the one that agreed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is my first round.  Do I just keep hounding them until they eventually say yes? Also, does anyone know if opening a secured credit card will help my situation.  The only thing we have open is a very small retail cc with virtually no utilisation and two car loans, one is 14 months old and the other 10 months.  My scores are currently eq 569, tu 567 and ex507.

[Shogun]

General rule is no new credit within 6 months of apping for a mortgage.