Paying Down Debit

[Anonymous]

I'm just starting my credit repair journey and wanted to know what was the highest priority.  

What should I do first - pay down credit cards or pay off collections?  I only have 1 item in collections and 4 credit cards.  My debt is not super high but I need to bring it down.  

Please advise.  

[AllZero]

@Anonymous  Who is the Collection Agency?

It may be a company that does PFD Pay For Delete.

[Anonymous]

Resurgent is the agency

[AllZero]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Resurgent is the agency

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I didn't see them on the list. Hopefully, more experienced members can advise.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Collection-agencies-that-do-PFD/td-p/5675391

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help.  This is my first day, so any help and direction is appreciated.

[dragontears]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm just starting my credit repair journey and wanted to know what was the highest priority.  

What should I do first - pay down credit cards or pay off collections?  I only have 1 item in collections and 4 credit cards.  My debt is not super high but I need to bring it down.  

Please advise.  

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Personally, I would focus on open accounts first if you have high utilization. The CA will be there, keeping open accounts in good standing is important. How high is your utilization? 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm just starting my credit repair journey and wanted to know what was the highest priority.  

What should I do first - pay down credit cards or pay off collections?  I only have 1 item in collections and 4 credit cards.  My debt is not super high but I need to bring it down.  

Please advise.  

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Personally, my goal would be to become financially stable and debt free and in the process my credit score would increase naturally just as the symptom of having good habits and practices.

1. Put the collections on Hold, Stay current on all of your necessities to survive, Pay the minimum on all of your credit card bills, and save at least $1,000 as an emergency fund so if Murphy hits, you can recover easily.

2. Afterwards, pay off the highest interest credit card, and then move onto the next highest, and so on until they're all paid off.

3. Then contact the collection agency and see if you can get a Pay to Delete in writing (I would only do it once I got it in writing, otherwise it's just heresay), then pay that off.

4. Congrats, you're debt free and I bet your credit score got a huge boost in the process.

[righthererightnow]

Making payments on your Credit Cards should lower your debt ratio and give you some score point increases. Depends on how far behind you are on the collection, might be better to look into how long it's been in collection before you give any money to it. Try to protect the accounts that you still have.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with the above. With the collection, the damage is done. Maintain and pay down your open accounts to avoid anything adverse like balance chasing, CLDs, or potential lates. As mentioned, the CA isn't going anywhere in the meantime. It'll be there when you have your open cards paid down/off to be dealt with then.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for everyone's advice.  Definitely will hold on the collections.  I've been reading about that.  The main thing I have to recover from are late payments and that's only going to take time.  My credit cards are less than $1k and I paid half of that on Friday.  So I will be able to keep my card balances low.  The goal---pay on time, build up savings and play the waiting game for the late payments.  Anything else I'm missing?