After what seems like an eternity my credit scores are inching back into the range of the national average. The major thing keeping my score down at this point is an old Capital One credit card account.
The account had an initial balance of around $300 when I ran into a financial disaster and now reports a balance of over $1,600 with fees and penalties; this keeps my utilization level at over 300%. While I don’t know the exact impact this has on my credit report I imagine my FICO scores will increase by at least 20 – 30 points once I can get my utilization under 10%. While the account was closed by Capital One in 2003 and I have made no payment since then, the account status is reported as open to the credit bureaus and it has not been sold to a collection agency.
The account is due to fall off my credit reports next fall (September 2010) but I would like to do what I can to improve the situation before that. I called and spoke with a fairly aggressive and hardnosed rep at Capital One who said they would definitely not agree to remove the account for full payment. If I can’t get the account removed completely I would be happy to have the balance reported as $0 so long as it did not mean the account will stay on my credit reports past next September.
My question is: Is there a way to pay the balance due without increasing the recent activity on the account and resetting the 7 year clock for it to stay on my credit report? Is there any specific language I should use when negotiating with Cap One? Any other suggestions to reduce or eliminate the impact this account is having on my credit scores? Or is my best bet to do nothing until the account falls off my credit reports?
Thanks
