First time poster in need of some help

[shellybean28]

Hi everyone,

To start off I screwed my Credit up BIG time!

For the last year or so I have been trying to make up for 15 years of bad credit descions

I paid off a lot of Collection agencys

And I have payment plans with about 4 more

My question is..

What should I be aiming for with these payoff's?

The "Status" for most of my old Colletions say Bad debt/Collection

Should I send PFD letters to all these companies?

Is the goal to just get the whole thing off my report?

I also have really old accounts from 1997 that say Pays account as agreed.. they all have $0 dollar amounts

Are these helping my score at all?

By Next month I should have all the outstanding balances paid off, but I want to know what I should do next

Thank you all so much for any help

I really do appreciate any help you guys have

I cant wait to just get all this negative stuff off my report, and rebuild my credit..

I can only say I learned my lesson!!

[shellybean28]

After doing some more searching, I think what I need to send out are GW letters, since I paid them off already..

Im so confused..lol

If they do accept the GW letter, can they drop the Bad debt/Collection from my report?

Thanks again

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums!

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@shellybean28 wrote:

Hi everyone,

To start off I screwed my Credit up BIG time!

For the last year or so I have been trying to make up for 15 years of bad credit descions

I paid off a lot of Collection agencys

And I have payment plans with about 4 more

My question is..

What should I be aiming for with these payoff's? You should try for PFDs.  Just paying will have no impact on your score.

The "Status" for most of my old Colletions say Bad debt/Collection  That would be correct.  If paid it would say paid collection

Should I send PFD letters to all these companies? If you still owe money and want it off your report, yes do a PFD

Is the goal to just get the whole thing off my report?  Yes

I also have really old accounts from 1997 that say Pays account as agreed.. they all have $0 dollar amounts

Are these helping my score at all?  Are these open or closed, positive or negative?

By Next month I should have all the outstanding balances paid off, but I want to know what I should do next

Thank you all so much for any help

I really do appreciate any help you guys have

I cant wait to just get all this negative stuff off my report, and rebuild my credit..

I can only say I learned my lesson!!

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A paid collection or paid CO are looked at in the same negative way.  Paying does not help your score.  The best thing to do with the remaining you owe money on is request a PFD. 

If they are paid send GW letters.

Are there any OC accounts associated with the collections?