If You Were Me...

[mmmagique]

I have 9 baddies on my report and would really like them off! I have about $3000 I can throw at them, but I want to be smart about it. Luckily, the baddies are split between just three collection companies, so they may be easier to take care of than if there were more. 

I have four with Midland totalling about 1900

I have three with Portfolio Recovery totalling about 1200

And I have 2 with GLA (local medical debts) totalling about 325

Most of these collections happened (I think) around 2013, to 2014, except for the medical ones that happened in the last couple of years. I was thinking of paying the medical ones directly to the medical practices if they will let me, and then either try the hippa method or goodwill to try to get those off. 

How much do you think I can negotiate the other ones down and still get them removed? 

Any advice on how to tackle these?

Thanks in advance! 

[Ardecko]

Midland has been removing old, settled collections for a while now. If you've got a statement, just pay the amount (20-50%) they want and move on. They'll clean it up on their own.

I think Portfolio Recovery just started removing collections as well, do some searching here.

The last one, I don't know about. Search here for medical collections specifically, as I think there's a couple ways you might tackle those.

Edit: Ugh, so many edits to fix swipe typos.

[mmmagique]

Thank you! I kind of have analysis paralysis. I don't want to pay more than I have to, but I do want to get these baddies behind me!

[Caardvark]

Before you do anything I would investigate the statute of limitations for your state. If the SOL has passed, you will be in a much better position to negotiate a lower settlement and still get a PFD. 

For example, I am in Florida (four year SOL) and recently negotiated a PFD with Portfolio Recovery for 40% of the balance. I believe this was only possible due to the SOL having been expired.