Welcome to My Fico.
Paying a collection doesn't remove them from your report but a paid collection is better than one unpaid.
You should contact each owner of the accounts and offer a PFD/pay for delete.
If they accept, they will remove them after you pay. If they refuse, I would pay anyway, perhaps settle for a lesser amount and send good will letters asking for removal.
The collections will be deleted 7 years after the date of first delinquency (paid or not) usually but must be removed by 7 yrs + 180 days.
Do you have any positive tradelines? Cards, loans etc??
Good Luck to you..
Having the loans is a good thing, especially if they are mostly paid off.
It's best to get it in writing, yes. There are some rotten CA's out there that will say anything to collect.
It depends on who has the accounts- some have a good reputation for deleting if they agreed to it.
If you can keep your cap one cards under 9% it will help your score or try paying prior to the statement cutting.
Perhaps the shared secured loan gurus will pop in- CreditGuyInDixie has great info on that.
Getting the baddies off is #1 priority as that will up your score in a big way.
3-5 years is plenty of time to fix yourself up quite nicely..
Lastly, if you haven't pulled your reports do so here for free once per year. annualcreditreport.com
