For about a year and a half, I have been working hard to pay off my debt and improve my credit as much as possible because I'd like to buy a house soon. I've pretty much done everything that is in my control and my Experian/Transunion scores have gone from 594/587 to 720/728 (with my mortgage FICO scores for each reporting a few points higher). However, my Equifax score is sitting at 694 because of a collection that is still reporting.
Context: In March, 20107 I was involved in a school bus accident on the way to a field trip (I am a 3rd grade teacher). After the accident, I went to the hospital to get checked out which resulted in an ER bill and a radiology bill. I, of course, was assured by my school's HR that all bills would be handled by the\ school, so when I received the paper bills in the mail, I immediately gave them to our HR manager and didn't think much else of it. Months later, without ever receiving further communication, (I had since moved to a different city so that may have also contributed to that), I noticed two hits to my credit (for all three bureaus) for those bills that had since been sent to collections. I immediately reached back out to my old school to find out that the HR person I originally communicated with was no longer affiliated with the school. The new person "sent my information" to a legal representative for the school, however, I never heard back and never noticed any change on my report. I reached back out again to no reply.
I then submitted disputes for both collections for all three bureaus and included emails where the school said they would pay. Both Experian and Transunion removed both items, however Equifax only removed one. Every couple months, I try to dispute the last one again (most recently with both the emails and a screenshot of the other bureaus having removed it) to no avail.
Knowing that I want to buy a house soon, what would be my best course of action? The collection is an amount that I can reasonably pay, but I've been avoiding that because I know that it would still remain on my credit report as a negative item and I'd prefer for it to be gone completely. I also know that mortgage companies usually take your median score, so the Equifax score would probably get thrown out anyway. I just wanted to see if there were any courses of action I haven't considered.
Thanks for any and all advice!
