Cleaning up old collections and building credit - HELP!

[Anonymous]

My girlfriend recently paid off an old dental bill collection on her own. She just wrote them a check for the full amount and she thought that was it.

She also found out she has another medical bill collection from several years ago.

How do we go about making 100% sure that these debts are paid in full and taken off her credit or whatever needs to happen to improve her score? I don't want to give her bad advice.

Her only other active debt is a car loan, which she keeps current.

Where should we go from here to increase her credit? Get a secured credit card? 

[BungalowMo]

How old are the 2 bad accounts?  How are they reporting?   Are they reporting by OC and collections too?

More info please! 

Message Edited by BungalowMo on 05-08-2009 12:05 PM

[Anonymous]

They both were in collections and several years old. Nearly 7 years old. What is OC?

Message Edited by kfinkmortgage on 05-08-2009 09:06 AM

[BungalowMo]

By "nearly" do you mean they will hit 7 yrs in 09?  This year??

[Anonymous]

I believe one of them will (the unpaid one).

[nothingman02]

Paid or unpaid, they should fall off at 7.5 years from DOFD. Have you obtained your CBRs from annualcreditreport.com? You could find your DOFD dates in there. There is another forum for medical collections which I'd suggest that you look into.

[fused]

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kfinkmortgage wrote:
I believe one of them will (the unpaid one).

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Med collections can stay on your reports for seven years from the date of treatment. Check your reports from the CRAs and look for the following: drop off dates on TU and EX and the date of first delinquency on EQ. If it turns out they're nearing the seven year mark, leave them alone, they're not tanking your scores. I never recommend working on baddies this old.

[nothingman02]

Uh...oh..er...my previous post was in haste... sorry...

[fused]

No worries, its all good.