Collections Question

[Anonymous]

I have 6 collection accounts dating back to 2005 and ranging from $80 up to $950.  My question is this - I want to write pfd on all of them, but not at the same time - does the order that I do them in have any effect on my score?  I want to start with the lower ones first, but does it make more sense to pay the oldest first or the newest first?  Lastly, how much can I expect my scores to increase if the ca agrees to pfd?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I would never send a CA any form of money without a written agreement to PFD.  Restrictive endorsements are not always honored.

If you were to pay these and they did not delete them,  your scores would not change.  FICO sees paid and unpaid collections in the same negative way.

I would send each CA a DV.  If they respond to the DV I would  send them a request for PFD. 

If these are the only bad items on your CR and they all were to be deleted then I would imagine a significant increase.  Any one bad item can drag down your score considerably.

Another thing to consider is the age of the accounts.  Getting an older account deleted, whether good or bad, can affect your score because of age. 

Message Edited by guiness56 on 05-22-2009 11:36 PM

[Anonymous]

The order you PFD in doesn't really make a difference, except that you may see a few more points when a more recent collection is removed opposed to when from 5 years ago is removed. In my experience, it didn't make much of a difference on which ones were removed, the score changes were minimal as long as I still had remaining negatives.

As for age, true collections NEVER add any positive to your score, so don't worry about losing age with them.

The only things you should consider when DV'ing and PFD'ing is SOL and whether you can PIF.

I would opt out before you begin as well.

[RobertEG]

DV and PFD letters to a CA are only communications between you and the CA under the FDCPA.  The CRA is not a party to these determinations, and thus they dont impact your credit score.