CO and how long it poisons the scoring

[jake619]

I have two accounts that were CO back in 9/2010. Having just passed the two-year mark is there any truth that these will begin to have less effect going forward? I have been continuing payments since then and one offered to settle. I took it so here comes the 1099 but it now shows zero owed. The other has about 2K to go. Should things begin looking up and is there any reason to GW them on the foundation I have made 24+ months of consistent payments? It's Wells Fargo CC of it matters.

[RobertEG]

Two factors involving a CO might temper their feeling of good will.

First, by settling for less, they did not recover the entire obligated debt.

Second, even though settled, that settlement required them to go back and redo their books, offsetting their prior write-off of a receivable asset with the cash asset they have now obtained.  A bit of accounting time and work.

Give it a shot, but an account once identified by them as "uncollectible" makes COs a bit more dicey in securing their good will.....

[jake619]

Understood.  I think if I paint it a certain way they may be more forgiving.  Like you say, it can't hurt.  What happened was about 2 years ago I did a debt consolidation program that I paid into as promised.  At this point the account was just closed by credit grantor, not CO.  Recently we changed our due date with the debt agency which prompted them to submit a new offer letter to Wells.  Wells refused it saying CO accounts are not allowed to be repayed via agencies.  So we woke the bear.  Wells called me directly and said PIF in 30 days or they would accept $392 until paid back.  I said no and no, defended my position, thanked them for COing the account while I was repaying it as agreed and hung up.  Two days later they called back and offered to settle.  I had no other option given the previous two choices weren't going to happen.  I really only want the lates erased - I can accept the settled tag.

My big question is how long the CO and associated lates will continue to keep affecting my score?