Closed Negative Accounts versus Collection Accounts

[Anonymous]

Good day,

I am new to the forum, and i tried to see if i could get this answered before posting, so if its out there my apologies. I am rebuilding, and i have a few closed negative accounts as well as a few in collections. My question is, what makes sense to tackle first? Does one have a bigger impact over the other as far as credit score wise? Thank you all in advance.

[Kree]

Hi RoDawg,

Welcome to the forum.  The short answer is we can't tell you.

The impact on your credit score depends upon many factors, including what the negative information is, how long ago the negative even occured, and how many negative accounts of each type you have.

I personally would recommend that the focus should be the newest collections first.  This is because if they are new enough (and valid enough), you could be sued by the collection agency.   Adding a legal judgement on your report would certainly be harmful.

[Anonymous]

Newer ones also tend to still be reporting by creditors/collection agencies which affects your score negatively each month.
I had 3 collections reporting. I also had 2 charge offs from Chase. But Chase stopped reporting in 2016. So I tacked the collections first. Once I paid those, my score soared. Then I did my charge offs. So, each case is different.

[Anonymous]

Ok, great, thanks for the feedback

[RobertEG]

If you have an account that is currently delinquent with no collection or judgment, it is generally preferable to pay that account back into good-standing in order to avoid further damage that can occur if the creditor either charges off the debt and/or sells or refers the delinquent debt to a debt collector or initiates civil suit seeking a judgment.

It is not simply affect on current score, but also the liklihood of further score damage by addition of major derogs that are possible for a currently delinquent account.

[howellco2]

I cant swear to this but if you have a old charge off that has been paid back years ago the Negative account helps AoAA atleast it did in my case