Effect of settled collections

[ibebarrett]

***I’m not sure if this goes under rebuilding or scoring so please move if necessary***
So I have this collections account because of sprint being sprint, but I won’t get in to that.
I’m trying to determine if it’s worth paying to get it deleted. it was $570 and I settled for half, but I’ve seen a couple people successfully get the collections deleted by paying sprint directly for the remaining balance. I’m trying to get my score at peak performance and can’t decide if it would be worth the remaining $280.
Current FICO 8
Tu-677
Eq-654
Ex-667
The collections account doesn’t appear on TU, I have several 16 month old student loan lates on all reports, I’m not sure what’s causing the spread between ex and eq though.
Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

If you get it deleted and it's the only bad mark left it's going to get you a significant point boost.  Sprint is a bit of a bottom feeder when it comes to dealing with them.  

[ibebarrett]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If you get it deleted and it's the only bad mark left it's going to get you a significant point boost.  Sprint is a bit of a bottom feeder when it comes to dealing with them.  

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It's the only baddie other than a handful of  90+ days lates, would those lates prevent a gain from collections removal?

[Anonymous]

I’m no expert but based on your TU report it looks like a possible gain of 10-24 points assuming removing the collection on EQ and EX would bring you exactly even with TU. It never seems to work out exactly like that though.

You do seem to be in a credit range where a few points could do you a lot of good in terms of risk profile, but who knows if you could make it all the way to 680.

[FireMedic1]

Sprint and their collection buddies or any telecommunication service are a bear to get rid of. You could try and pay the entire collection off so it would show PIF and not settled for less. This will look better to future creditors. But the 90 day lates are the killer. You got to work on them with whats available for student loans and such. Someone will come along and explain whats available to you. Student loans were a whole lot different back in the 80's when I had mine. You could always call and ask for a GW adjustment stating why you were late and that you've been on time since 16 months ago. Will the collection be deleted? Probably not. Get working on those 90 days and everything possible to rid yourself of them. Good Luck!

[ibebarrett]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I’m no expert but based on your TU report it looks like a possible gain of 10-24 points assuming removing the collection on EQ and EX would bring you exactly even with TU. It never seems to work out exactly like that though.

You do seem to be in a credit range where a few points could do you a lot of good in terms of risk profile, but who knows if you could make it all the way to 680.

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Yeah I'm curious to see if EQ is just more upset about Collections than EX or if there is some magical invisible force taking action on EQ

@FireMedic1 wrote:

Sprint and their collection buddies or any telecommunication service are a bear to get rid of. You could try and pay the entire collection off so it would show PIF and not settled for less. This will look better to future creditors. But the 90 day lates are the killer. You got to work on them with whats available for student loans and such. Someone will come along and explain whats available to you. Student loans were a whole lot different back in the 80's when I had mine. You could always call and ask for a GW adjustment stating why you were late and that you've been on time since 16 months ago. Will the collection be deleted? Probably not. Get working on those 90 days and everything possible to rid yourself of them. Good Luck!

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Unfortunately the lates are not changeable since they're student loans, and Nelnet has no empathy. I had to move across the country for a dying family member, I left my grandmas address as mailing address and thought I had initiated deferrment....come to find out I "never finalized it" via some document, then they never tried to contact me until it was about to go into default, at least my grandma got a letter about that! Then instead of catching up on the balance in one payment they talked me into a retroactive forbearance to delete the lates.....which it didn't. Granted, I probably should have been checking up on my SLs to be safe, but I was dealing with a lot of other more important things at the time.

Back to collections.

The frustrating part is Sprint is the one that owes me money, not the other way around, and it went to collections while trying to fight that. At this point though I just really don't care about the principle of the matter, I just want it off my report....Sprint is literally the f*cking worst!

[Anonymous]

Navient..... I don't have SL's but, John Oliver did an episode on them recently....what a bunch of scumbags they are.  Their reps have default answers to use as recommendations that aren't the best options for people.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8pjd1QEA0c

[Anonymous]

Ibebarrett Yes, those lates are going to keep you on a dirty scorecard, unfortunately. Consequently you may not see very much gain from getting rid of the collection but nothing can be predicted with perfect accuracy.

You’ve got to try to get rid of those lates and even if they don’t have a heart, try again. You might get a different person the next contact and if that doesn’t work, keep trying!!

[Anonymous]

It's not so much that they don't have empathy. Are they federal student loans? If so, federal law requires them to report accurately, so if legit, they won't be able to be removed. I have navient and I have some 90 day lates.

[ibebarrett]

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@Anonymous 

Yeah John Oliver has a bunch of really interesting episodes, I don't agree with everything he says but I love that he publicizes the slightly more obscure travesties that exist in our current system.

@Anonymous wrote:
Ibebarrett Yes, those lates are going to keep you on a dirty scorecard, unfortunately. Consequently you may not see very much gain from getting rid of the collection but nothing can be predicted with perfect accuracy.

You’ve got to try to get rid of those lates and even if they don’t have a heart, try again. You might get a different person the next contact and if that doesn’t work, keep trying!!

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Unfortunately I can't get the lates removed due to government regulation, I've done lots of research and made several attempts....only 5.5 more years :/

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