Why I Love Equifax

[llecs]

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ntkebh wrote:

Also, why are "PAID IN FULL" collections just as negative as "negotiated settlements" or "unpaid" collections?  Is my brain so warped that it seems to me there is a difference?

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Lenders don't like to see any financial duress on the applicant's end and a presence of a CA, CO , or a BK are indicators of that. Accordingly, FICO doesn't care about the amounts owed. The fact that it is showing is the score damage. If a lender sees paid or settled CAs, then they would certainly wonder if it could happen to them too.

[haulingthescoreup]

+1

It's not whether or not you still owe the amount, it's the fact that you got so far behind that you were sent to collections, with the associated costs to the original lender.

It does help (probably) on manual review if a lender sees that you did pay what was owed, but there will always be that fact that an account in the past got so far behind.