General Help

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I find myself in a tough position.  I am 21 and already have a terrible credit score. (TU=586 EX=567 EQ=567).

I currently have two credit cards, a secured credit card with Bank of America for $300 (about three months old) and a FingerHut card for $150 (less than a month old). Both with balances less than $10.  I also have an installment loan for $6k (student loan) in good standing.

I have a credit card collections chargeoff on all three.

TU has three accounts in collections: $59 (Derogatory), $393 (Derogatory) and $595 (Paid).  All accounts are fairly new.  Also has three hard inquiries.

EX has five accounts in collections: $59 (Derogatory), $393 (Derogatory), $768 (Derogatory), $595 (Paid) and $41 (Derogatory).  Again all accounts are fairly new.  Has twelve hard inquiries .

EQ has three accounts in collections: $59 (Derogatory), $393 (Derogatory) and $768 (Derogatory).  Fairly New.  Fourteen Inquiries, four of which will be off over the next month!

So essentially, I have $59, $393, $768 and $41 in collections with a lot of inquiries.  All in all, not a large sum of money, and I do have the money to pay back, but what would you recommend I do?  I have sent dispute letters to the CRAs to no avail. I am starting to think that I should just contact the CAs and try to work out a deal for them to change the status to closed paid in full or paid as agreed.  I desprately need at least my EQ score above 600 as soon as possible and I don't really have the time to wait for responses to DV, etc., please advise.  If I paid my debts and had the statuses changed, would this increase my score?

[Anonymous]

FYI, it's my understanding that "paid" or "paid in full" has no effect on your credit score. Simply the collections being listed on your account drags down your score.

I have a collections that was updated to paid by mistake and it did nothing to my score. If you try to work with the CA, make sure you do a pay for delete agreement IN WRITING. The only way to improve your scores (other than just letting them age off) is to get them DELETED from your reports. CA's are not required to do this, so don't be surprised if they say no. 

Now, having a paid collections looks better than an open one to the human eye, so if you're planning on some major purchase (mortgage or something) then you definitely need to pay them regardless of whether or not they delete it. But as far as your score is concerned, it most likely won't change. 

This is all based on my opinion/experience...I'm still a credit noob, so somone with more experience may have better advice. Take this with a grain of salt lol

[LIGHTNIN]

+1,  What FloridaState12 is talking about is a PFD Letter , it's an written agreement you pay and the CA's delete.

I would suggest reading What Steps Do I Take?Do I DV?PFD? ,also check out the stickys at the top of the board.

I do have one question.....Where did you get your Credit Scores?  are they FICO Scores?