@Anonymous wrote:
So I have two judgements on my credit history, and enough money to pay off both. Question is will paying them off do me any good? And if I do pay them off can I get the judgements removed from my credit report?
Judgments generallyt are not removed from your credit report when paid. A judgment that is paid should show up as paid. Some states have processes you can try to use to get the judgment vacated once it is paid. If the judgment is vacated, it will be removed from your report. In most states if both the judgment creditor (person(s)/entity who won) and the judgment debtor (person(s)/entity who lost) both agree, there is a process to ask the court to set aside the judgment. Set aside and vacate are just fancy ways of saying remove the judgment.
You might not be able to remove the judgment. If not, the next best thing is to have the judgment show as paid. This is usually called a Satisfaction of Judgment. When you make the payment, the judgment creditor usually notifies the court that the judgment is paid by filing something to the effect (generically called a Satisfaction of Judgment but the forms name/process will vary from state to state). In some instances you might also have the option to pay the court on behalf of the judgment creditor to get the court to issue a satisfaction of judgment.
A paid judgment hurts your score. You generally won't see a significant score change when a judgment is paid. However, a paid judgment will greatly increase the likelihood a lender will lend to you. Many lenders, especially on manual review, will discount negatives like paid judgments. A person with a 650 score and a paid judgment might have a better chance at a loan than someone with a 680 score. Why? The judgment is reducing their score significantly and the lender knows this. Since the judgment is paid, the lender might be willing to overlook its impact. Simply put, a paying off a judgment will help you secure credit, but it will not significantly help your credit score.
If I were you I would look up the process to set aside and dismiss a judgment in your state. Then contact the creditor and see if they will be willing to co-sign a motion (or the form) to set aside the judgment once they are paid. If they are willing, you might be able to get the judgment removed.
