settling my reposessed auto loan

[shay0009]

i voluntarily re posessed my car last year owing 8g.  they sold and i then owed 4500.  i've been paying 100 a month for the last year and yet i still owed 4000 because of how high the interest was.  it was the only thing ruining and running my life via credit wise.  i offered a settlement after some haggling, but before i sent in the check, i want to verify that this is going to be reported to experiene etc etc and completely clean up my score and go to yay shay.  ?? i'm getting mixed answers and of course LBS the agengy i'm dealing with is saying, "yes we'll tell them and its going to be gravy."  well i'm not going to shell out my savings for nothing.. can anyone help out a mid twenties college girl with dyer question about this??? i want to have clean slate but not if this isn't really going to affect my score or help my future??? 

thx guys

[HoldingOntoHope]

What you want them to do is to delete the tradeline from your credit reports after paying the settlement. We call it a Pay for Delete or PFD. And you will want them to put it in writing that this is what they will do. A verbal promise is not going to do you any good. Now realistically if you are offering less than the full payoff then they have no real incentive to help you out. Without the PFD the account will likely report as closed and settled for less than owed and will be a negative on your credit history for the next 7 years. It's a hard lesson but most of us in these forums have overcome a checkered credit past and hard lessons learned on credit management. It does not mean that you will NEVER be able to get past this.