Pay off collection - Raise score?

[brownee615]

My husband and  are looking to rebuild our credit. Some background:

We filed bankruptcy in November of 2017. We paid on it through the trustee until May of 2019 when we stopped payments due to a family health emergency and sudden need of funds. In June/July of 2019, the bankruptcy was dismissed and all of our bills came back. We are all caught up on active debts like the mortgage, student loans, our one credit card, and one car payment, but have medical collections ($8000 through Fox Collections and Portfolio Recovery) and a cash advance loan in collections ($1400 through Speedy Cash) that we plan on paying off over the next three to four months to get those down to zero. We also owe $6000 on a car that is broken down and needs to be junked. We plan on paying that off next week so we can sell it and get rid of the debt and the car! 

My question is: Will all (or some) of that matter as far as raising our actual credit scores? Right now, we are both in the high 500's on each of the three bureaus. We want to pay everything off and we have a plan, but I also want to do it in the most favorable way with regards to our scores. 

Given all of that (and thanks for reading), is my plan to pay all collections off in the next few months, a good plan? 

[OmarGB9]

It's a good plan in the sense that you'll be getting rid of debt, but unfortunately paid collections still hurt your score unless you can get them removed. Who are the collections with and for how much? 

[brownee615]

Hi, thank you! We have $5100 owed to Portfolio Recovery and about $3000 to Fox Collections. They are all old medical bills. 

[AllZero]

@gdale6wrote:
You want to settle anything that is updating monthly first, these updates keep your fico score from moving up. For the CAs you try the PFD if they do not already have a stated deletion policy like PRA and Midland have.

There are some extra things that can be done with those medicals
Medical collections are some of the easiest to get removed from your CRs, here are the steps that you should follow to address them:

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. If not then
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
3. ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico.

[FireMedic1]

If you can PIF the medical provider that sent the collectons to Fox. It appears on their site they just collect for the provider. Ask them if you pay will they remove Fox from your reports. As far as Portfolio. Setled for less or PIF they will delete it it off your reports.

[Anonymous]

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@brownee615 wrote:

My husband and  are looking to rebuild our credit. Some background:

We filed bankruptcy in November of 2017. We paid on it through the trustee until May of 2019 when we stopped payments due to a family health emergency and sudden need of funds. In June/July of 2019, the bankruptcy was dismissed and all of our bills came back. We are all caught up on active debts like the mortgage, student loans, our one credit card, and one car payment, but have medical collections ($8000 through Fox Collections and Portfolio Recovery) and a cash advance loan in collections ($1400 through Speedy Cash) that we plan on paying off over the next three to four months to get those down to zero. We also owe $6000 on a car that is broken down and needs to be junked. We plan on paying that off next week so we can sell it and get rid of the debt and the car! 

My question is: Will all (or some) of that matter as far as raising our actual credit scores? Right now, we are both in the high 500's on each of the three bureaus. We want to pay everything off and we have a plan, but I also want to do it in the most favorable way with regards to our scores. 

Given all of that (and thanks for reading), is my plan to pay all collections off in the next few months, a good plan? 

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Pay them off but before you do call the collections company and get them to agree to remove the negative item after the account is PIF. I've always stayed on the phone with them and let them run my card. I get the name of the rep and contact info and reconfirm that the line is recorded, they will agree to a pay for removal, and then ask for the agreement in writing or email. That helped me during my rebuild. Settled several accounts this way and after the removal my score improved a lot.

[Anonymous]

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@FireMedic1 wrote:

If you can PIF the medical provider that sent the collectons to Fox. It appears on their site they just collect for the provider. Ask them if you pay will they remove Fox from your reports. As far as Portfolio. Setled for less or PIF they will delete it it off your reports.

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Exactly settle for less or PIF for removal. Just make sure to get some type of document stating that it was agreed to. And also ask how long it takes for them to process the deletion. Some take as little as a month if they fast track it, others can take a few months. It's just good to have an idea.