Am I stuck with these scores until the collections fall off?

[Anonymous]

My Equifax score is 676 and Transunion is 711.  They haven't changed for six months (except for a temporary dip when one credit card reported a large balance).  I pay my cards off monthly and the only other loan I have is a student loan for $80,000.  I have four collection items reporting on Equifax and three on Transunion.  These are all medical collections and the last one isn't scheduled to fall off until 2012.  I have two inquiries, one will reach the one year mark in January and the other in April.  I will also mark the one year aniversary for a personal loan in December (although that account has now been paid off).  Is there anything I can do to bring my scores up?

I offered to PIF for a deletion, but couldn't get the agency to agree in writing.  The collections are reporting every month, so is that bringing my score down more even though the most recent account was placed for collection in 2006?

[BungalowMo]

First...do these all have balances??  Is it more than you can afford to pay?  If you can pay, have you looked into the HIPAA process? 

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand your question "do all these have balance"?  I don't have any balance on my credit cards, although depending on the billing cycle, they will occassionally report a balance if my payment isn't made before the reporting date.  My only account with a balance is a student loan.

The four medical collections all have balances.  It is not more than I can pay now and I have offered to pay in full in exchange for the items being deleted from my credit report. 

I'm not comfortable with using the HIPAA process because I don't believe it is a correct reading of the law and due to my job, I would not feel comfortable taking that position. 

I'm hoping to buy a house soon and don't want to do anything that will decrease my scores, so I don't want to pay them without an agreement to delete the accounts.  I know I will have to pay the collections before closing.  I was wondering if the fact that the collection agency is reporting the item each month causes a greater decrease in my credit score or if it is just based on the date of last activity.

I'm frustrated because my scores have been at 676/711 for six months.  I just thought that since derogatory information was supposed to have less of a negative impact over time, my score should go up over time.