If its reporting monthly it won’t affect you more than it already is. If you pay it it could give your some points and it will still fall off next year.
Starting Score: 494 503 521
HI Busymom, welcome to the forums!
@Anonymous wrote:I have an old debt, first deliquent is February 2013. It is still showing as a charge off on my credit. I was thinking to send them a letter and request payment in leiu of removal of the charge off. Is there any bad that can come of me sending the letter? Otherwise it should fall off shortly correct? The debt was from when I went through a messy divorce and I had to pay what was vital. No other bankrupties, repo's, or collections on my credit. I have slowly paid back everything but this old charge off, but I would like to move on with my life and get this off.
It depends...
When was the last time the tradeline was updated?
- If it's being updated monthly, or has been updated very recently, then poking the bear by sending a PFD (pay-for-delete) request won't have much of an effect, if any, on your scores.
- If the account has not been updated in a long time, I suggest you leave it alone and let it fall off. If you seek a deletion at this time, the debt holder may be inclined to decline your request and/ or update the tradeline on your reports with delinquent status' -- which will negatively affect your scores.
- Caveat: IF the account is still reporting a balance -- Outstanding debts are factored into your overall credit utilization. Depending on how much you owe, if you pay the debt now, it may help your scores if payment of the debt to a $0 balance significantly reduces your utilization, causing it to drop below a scoring threshold. This gain in points may be more than the loss of points from updating the tradeline.
Who currently owns the debt, the original creditor or a collection agency?
- If the charge-off currently shows an outstanding balance, the original creditor still owns the debt (although collection authority may have been assigned to a 3rd party agency).
- If the charge-off is showing a $0 balance, then the account has been sold. If this is the case, is there a collection tradeline also showing on your reports in addition to the original charge-off?
- If the original creditor still owns the debt, it is unlikely you will succeed in negotiating a PFD arrangement; PFDs usually work best with collection agencies. However, if you tell us who the creditor is, we can give you a more definitive answer as to how they respond to PFD requests.
- If the original creditor has sold the debt, then asking for a PFD is pointless, as they can no longer accept payment. You could, however, try sending a Goodwill letter and request removal as an act of goodfaith.
You're looking at Feb. 2020 for removal from your reports. If I were you, I'd probably just wait until the account is eligible for an Early Exclusion (EE) from the bureaus. Upon request, Transunion will typically delete negative tradelines up to 6 months early (so Aug. 2019), Experian 3 months early (Nov. 2019), and Equifax 1 month early (Jan. 2020).
