a clean credit card showing as settled?

[Anonymous]

I am doing a refi and am getting cash out to pay off credit cards. The loan officer suggested I see if any of them would settle. One would settle for 85% but she said it would say settled on our credit report. She said this would be a negative. Is it? She also said they would send us a 1099? We are going to refi within 6 months to a year so I don't want to do it if it is going to affect our scores. Does anybody know? Otherwise it would show as a clean paid credit card.

[Anonymous]

are these CC showing as baddies on you CR?? Or do you just want to pay off?

Message Edited by HappyDays on 08-09-2007 06:15 PM

[Anonymous]

No, it's clean. Our scores are in the 610's now because of all of our debt. We are doing a not so great refi to get rid of the debt and get our scores up. We want to refi again in 6months to a year. It would should a clean paid account but have the comment settle.

[Anonymous]

Here's my take on your situation:

DO NOT ASK FOR SETTLEMENTS!

Get what cash you can out of your equity and pay off whatever it'll pay off. I think paying highest interest cards first is smart - but you may want to pay off the smaller ones first - strictly up to you. The CSR told you the right thing: Settlements will hurt your score! They will be closed and noted as settled for less than the amount owed. B-A-D!

[Anonymous]

Just a heads up...if you are going to refi again in 6-12 mos. Be sure you don't have to pay pre-payment penalty....make sure its in writing....that can kill a  future refi and can cost you thousands of dollars.

Just a word of caution!

[Anonymous]

i am also in the process of paying down my creditcards by doing bt's between existing cards.  would it help any that i am PAYING OFF TO ZERO BALANCE on my other credit cards?  would this help my FICO score or would it be better leaving some balance left on them?

[Anonymous]

The sentiment on this board is 1-9% utilization (balance) on Credit cards.