Getting anything removed from your CR prior to the 7 or 7 1/2 year drop off periods set forth in FCRA 605(a) requries that you give a credtor a reason to ask the CRA to delete them.
With regard to a legit and unpaid debt, you must take two actions to secure possible earlier removal. YOu must pay the debt, and you must get creditor agreement to then delete the prior delinquency reportings.
Simply paying the debt wont help at all with regard to CR removal. Paid and unpaid accounts still score the prior derogs on the account.
To get deleton, you must either offer,before paying, to pay in exchange for their prior agreement to then delete their prior credit reporting in exchange for your payment of the debt. This is called a PFD offer. The creditor does not have accept, or even respond, to such a conditional offer.
The second way is to just pay the debt in full. This does not remove any prior derogs reported, so you must then ask the creditor to grant deletion after the fact based on their "good will." A so-called GW letter.
