https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Recovering-after-settlement/m-p/4533568#M107473 <P>I ended up settling an account today with Dyck O'Neal. &nbsp;They held a $5k promissory note for a short sale that closed in September 2013. &nbsp;Fannie Mae required it to approve the short sale. &nbsp;I made payments on the account until December 2013 when a few setbacks required me to prioritize payments and this account&nbsp;was at the bottom of my list. &nbsp;Unfortunately, but the time I recovered the account was reporting 120 days late and has been ever since then (June '15). &nbsp;They did little in the way to collect on it, just sending me a letter occasionally. &nbsp;They finally offered to settle with me for 60% off the balance - just over $1700. &nbsp;It looked like they were going to sit on it forever keep reporting it late. &nbsp;I just wanted to move on and position myself to buy a house sometime later next year, so I decided to accept the offer and I paid it today. &nbsp;I have somewhat high utilization right now (~70% on $25k of CL), but will have all of my CCs paid off later this year. &nbsp;Other than this account and a 60 day late from the mortgage on the property I sold short, I have 20 years of credit history with no black marks. &nbsp;How long should I expect to see some upward movement in my FICO score? &nbsp;I'm currently at a 639 (per Discover Card). &nbsp;They are reporting to TU and EQ. &nbsp;Also, any recommendations on ways to improve things are always appreciated. &nbsp;Thanks.</P> Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:13:36 GMT bschmidt 2016-04-07T21:13:36Z https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Recovering-after-settlement/m-p/4533568#M107473 <P>I ended up settling an account today with Dyck O'Neal. &nbsp;They held a $5k promissory note for a short sale that closed in September 2013. &nbsp;Fannie Mae required it to approve the short sale. &nbsp;I made payments on the account until December 2013 when a few setbacks required me to prioritize payments and this account&nbsp;was at the bottom of my list. &nbsp;Unfortunately, but the time I recovered the account was reporting 120 days late and has been ever since then (June '15). &nbsp;They did little in the way to collect on it, just sending me a letter occasionally. &nbsp;They finally offered to settle with me for 60% off the balance - just over $1700. &nbsp;It looked like they were going to sit on it forever keep reporting it late. &nbsp;I just wanted to move on and position myself to buy a house sometime later next year, so I decided to accept the offer and I paid it today. &nbsp;I have somewhat high utilization right now (~70% on $25k of CL), but will have all of my CCs paid off later this year. &nbsp;Other than this account and a 60 day late from the mortgage on the property I sold short, I have 20 years of credit history with no black marks. &nbsp;How long should I expect to see some upward movement in my FICO score? &nbsp;I'm currently at a 639 (per Discover Card). &nbsp;They are reporting to TU and EQ. &nbsp;Also, any recommendations on ways to improve things are always appreciated. &nbsp;Thanks.</P> Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:13:36 GMT https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Recovering-after-settlement/m-p/4533568#M107473 bschmidt 2016-04-07T21:13:36Z https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Recovering-after-settlement/m-p/4538137#M107590 <P>If I'm reading what you said correctly, you may not see any gains in points because of the paymnet. The collection alone&nbsp;gives you the hit on your score.&nbsp; The only change you may see is the status updated to "piad."&nbsp; Unless the account is deleted, there would not be achange in score unfortunatey, unless I'm missing something.&nbsp; When you paid that, the best thing would have been to offer a "pay for deletion." When agreed to, once you pay the settled price, they would then delete it from your reports, then it's a negative no longer showing and you get the score jump. Moving forward, paying your cards don is great, but remember to keep one card showing a balance at statement time between 1-9% utilization to receive amaximum points. If you report 0% utilization, you can lose points.&nbsp; Best of luck.</P> Sun, 10 Apr 2016 14:03:53 GMT https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Recovering-after-settlement/m-p/4538137#M107590 RonM21 2016-04-10T14:03:53Z