The amount of the collection makes no difference in how it affects your score, whether it be $1 or $1000. What affects your score is the amount of time since it hit your report. The longer it sits on your report, the less damaging it is to your score. Anything more than 2 years old has much less of an impact than something more recent. I just had a collection removed from 2016 and it boosted my score from 599 to 620. Having another one removed some time this week. This one is from 2105 so I'm expecting it won't boost me as much as the more recent collection. If you had something removed that had been on your credit report for more than 3 years, it may only give you a couple of points or maybe nothing at all. If you don't have anything that recent that you can have removed, really all you can do is wait. Lenders want to see a clean history for 24 months meaning no late payments, and nothing going into collections. Also make sure if you have any open accounts (loans, credit cards, etc.) pay them down to a 0 balance. I am working with a lender to obtain a mortgage and this is all advice from my credit repair specialist.
