Yes, it could impact your score negatively if it reports. It will be like receiving a new one. I would reach out to whomever bought it and provide them proof it was paid.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks Brian. I did reach out to let them know this was paid, and they said they would investigate. They've reported it to Experian, I received an alert about it. Do you know whether this could ruin my chances of securing a mortgage? Or just impact my score and my rate? Or could it do both?
My score is 720 - Experian, 711 - Transunion, 707 - Equifax.
Sort it, your problem is that any account in dispute will derail the mortgage full stop. This is bad timing all around as any action instigated with you to bureau will trigger a dispute.
Do you know what your scores were before the collection hit? If the scores are basically the same (if other CAs or issues are on the account) I'd be tempted to just go with the mortgage app and ignore it for now and then sort it afterwards. If it's the only one and that would materially affect, I don't know what the right approach would be as now we're talking material financial impact and therefore damages. Also depends when you are planning to pull the trigger on a home, if it's still a few months out you probably have time to resolve any dispute, if it's a month or less you don't.
Have your paperwork around the payment though, both for a mortgage app and also if you wind up having to fight this.
Post over on Rebuilding Your Credit though about addressing it, you'll get better information over there explicitly around fighting it.
