How Much Does A Dropping Off Collection Matter?

[John060675]

The more I read on the forum, the more confused I get.  I hope someone could help me on this one.  I have a collection that is dropping off in Jan. 2008 (GW them, hopefully will be a little sooner).  My question is how much will this affect my score? 

I have read about old collections coming off bumping the score a lot, and then I have read that they only helped a little when they came off.

I know it is probably hard to say a number, but what should I expect?  Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I got an unpaid CA off and my FICOs went up an avg of about 40 points.

[John060675]

That is wonderful!  Mine is paid in full, though.  Do you think this will make any difference in the score?  40 points is definitely a great New Year's present!

[Anonymous]

A paid Collection Trade Line item, less than 1 year old, dropped off my report (with GW) and my increased my scores a different amount of each agency (11, 13, 14 points). My old score were in the 610 range.

Interestingly the increase on the scores my mortage lender ran were significant (over 25 points for TU).    

[Anonymous]

I think that the older the collection, the less impact that it is having on your current score and it may not impact your score a whole lot if that is the case.

[coachhenson]

I recently had a horror story with Papa John's over a pizza order and refused to pay the check.  It was supposed to be taken care of but instead they sent it to collections as a bad check.

Long story short...it only reported on my EQ report and it dropped me from a 562 to a 523.  I called corporate and threatened them and their "better ingredients" and it was corrected immediately.  My score went right back up to a 562.

I also have access to a lot of free pizza now, too.

I heard the same thing about collections being deleted that it wouldn't cause much of a score increase but twice I have seen nice jumps in my case.

[Steve9356]

I just filed a dispute about a judgment that was against me in 2002 and has been mis-reported for 5 years. It was actually paid in 2002 and it was on my report as unpaid I finally won the appeal and my fico score went up 30 points!!

[Anonymous]

Even if you don't get a big score jump or anything, collections on a report will turn you into an instant credit turndown. So the faster it's off, the better.