Paid off collection accounts..

[frankjaeger]

Do these still stay on my report for seven years? I had two small medical bills (<$150 each)  go to collections, simply because I had forgotten about them. Anyways, I called the collection companies and paid both in full. However, the collection agencies are still showing up on my report but they're showing as '$0 owed'.

I'm new to the whole collections thing, so I'm not sure how this works. Is this still going to show up for people pulling my credit? That I have to accounts sent to collections even though they're paid off?

Sounds strange. I had assumed once they were paid off they would just disappear.

[rmduhon]

They can stay on your reports for 7.5 years from the Date of First Delinquency (DoFD) although the bureaus regularly delete them at 7 years. Start a Good Will (GW) campaign asking for removal of the accounts. It may take multiple tries for success. Yes, anyone that pulls your credit will see them but paid looks better than unpaid.

[frankjaeger]

'The only way we can have something completely removed from your report is if it was filed in error. Don't worry. Anyone pulling your credit will see that you don't owe us anything. It will just show as a closed account. Same as if you had a car loan and paid it off.'

Direct quote from the collection agency when asking about having it removed.

[Anonymous]

How long ago were they paid?  My experience with medical collections is that they tend to delete them once they are paid and without me even asking!  I am currently making payments on two collections from  a surgery and they simply told me that they would be deleted once they were paid.  It may also be similar to CAs taking settlement amounts where they report with a smaller balance (difference after settlement) and then the next month they update to $0.  I'm there are many different ways that the CAs go about reporting.