My spouse has a Merrick Bank credit card account that charged off. It was on a hardship plan and somehow we missed a payment so they c/o. Anyway now we are paying Cardworks Servicing $28 a month for 36 months to settle the account. We're about a year into it. They continue to send offers to lump sum settle. My question is if we were to take a lump sum settlement and be done with it would that improve the score at all? Its currently reporting as charged off by Merrick with the current balance. Cardworks is not reporting. They say that once the account has been settled Merrick will report it as settled.