Pay Collection Account As Agreed or Allow to Fall-Off?

[Anonymous]

I thought I saw a similar thread for this sometime this week, but I am having the craziest time on locating it, so I super apologize for making a duplicate post. My question is should I pay a fairly new collection account to make amends with the creditor and possibly remove the negative reporting from my CR or just allow it to fall off?

Here is the back story: I had an active cable account with TWC back in OH roughly two years ago prior to me relocating to CA. I always paid the bill even when I moved due to my parent's residing in my old home and didn't bother making a name change request. Long story short, they ended up moving from my old house into another place but accidently packed the TWC equipment with their other storage boxes and can't locate the box that has their property. So now they placed the account in collections for the boxes and won't allow me to pay them off via TWC only through ColA.

It got reported back in Feb 16' and just wanted to know if its a good idea to just try and pay through TWC or go through the ColA and pay them and get the negative remark removed my CR? Thank in advance for your valuable feedback!

[Anonymous]

Your story is very clear except for one thing.  You use the words they and their twice.  I think the first time it means your parents and the second time it means Time Warner Cable.  I have put the the first instances in blue and the second in red.  Am I understanding you right?

***  Here is the back story: I had an active cable account with TWC back in OH roughly two years ago prior to me relocating to CA. I always paid the bill even when I moved due to my parent's residing in my old home and didn't bother making a name change request. Long story short, they ended up moving from my old house into another place but accidently packed the TWC equipment with their other storage boxes and can't locate the box that has their property. So now they placed the account in collections for the boxes and won't allow me to pay them off via TWC only through ColA. ***

Waiting for the collection to fall off might take it a while.  I can't tell for sure but it sounds like the collection has several years before it is scheduled to fall off.

One useful thing to do is determine the amount that the collection is for (as it appears on your report)  Is the total amount < $100?  If so, that is encouraging.  By paying it off, FICO 8 will stop including it as a negative.  The FICO mortgage scores, on the other hand, which use much older models, will still count it.  I personally doubt that those ancient models will be widely used in three years (though they are now) so if the amount is < $100 and if you don't plan to buy a house in the next few years, then I don't see a downside to paying it off.

If either of those things are NOT true, however, then you'd need to be more careful.  The thing you'd want to attempt is to negotiate a pay-for-delete arrangement.  There are a lot of people here who can guide you about that.

[Anonymous]

Oh gosh CreditGuy you're absolutely right. I should know better to practice proper grammar skills. That is my fault for not proof-reading. For clarification, I always paid the bill, even when I moved out. My parent's still resided in my old home until this past January when they moved out. I didn't bother with changing the account holder's name even with me living in another state since it didn't cause an issue as the bill was always paid until it came time to turn in TWC equipment is when the problem began.

My parent's packed all of their belongings that they couldn't fit into their new residence, along with TWC cable box. I wasn't aware of this until I received the final bill and it stated that TWC charged for equipment, in which I asked my mom if she could kindly turn it back in. I figured it would be easy as pie to do this simple task but come to find out my parent's have so much furniture and crap in their storage that they didn't label which box they placed TWC cable in thus leading the account going to collection. 

Apparently one of my last interactions with TWC on changing my address for billing purposes didn't go through so they didn't forward the final statement to my new address. Its a bummer I have this on my CR but am willing to pay it to make amends and move on from this crazy incident. The amount on all three CR is $251 so definitely > $100 and no I don't plan on purchasing a home until my BK7 falls off in another 5 years.

Thanks again for your valuable input

[Anonymous]

You are very welcome!  I'd consider doing a pay-for-delete then, given that the amount is over $100.  If you simply pay it outright, it will count as a collection for FICO 8 and earlier versions (FICO 9 ignores all paid collections).  Admittedly, you already have a BK on your report, but the BK impact may lessen over time and it would be nice not to have a recent unpaid collection on your report in a couple years.

If you head over to the rebuilding forum they can help.  Try doing a search for PFD and Pay for delete as well -- you'll find lots of discussion threads about it.

Best wishes!