I saw this from a credit websiteI and I will copy and paste it verbatum:
'
Third, if you are unsuccessful at getting the collection account off of your credit report, know that with time, the consumer reporting agencies’ scoring models will decrease the impact of the collections account on your credit score. The FICO scoring model FICO 08 will not take into consideration collection accounts with an original balance of less than $100 when calculating your credit score. The key word here is “original.” This may include parking tickets, library fines and other small past due accounts.'
It talks about FICO 08 and this model not considering collections balance of less than $100 when calculating credit score. Anybody heard of this ?
So FICO 08 is what version of FICO? The latest formula? Which bureau will use this?
Reason why I asked is that I have two paid collections; one is $80.
So many questions.
We don't know what else this new FICO 08 has in stock. It might ignore less than $100 collections but it might hammer you somewhere else.
I think this whole idea of 7 years for a collection is down right bogus. Ok you penalize someone for a mistake but come on 7 years? In those seven years, you scores might be down and you might become prey to the sub prime so if you're already struggling, you're hammered doen with high interest rates as it is.
I call this the circle of chaos. I say 3 to 4 years for a paid collection to be on someones report with the option (legally written down) for the OC if they wish to remove it.
So truly a good formula should exclude any collection over 4 years old if they have been paid in full
Anyway i'm preaching ot the choir here.
**Rant switch off** 
I'm not part of the choir because I can't sing unfortunately. 
I will take a sec and throw out an opposing viewpoint. If I were a lender, I personally would want to see a long payment history whether good or bad. I think 7 years should be 10 years, though I personally would only consider the past 4-6 years, depending on the industry in this hypothetical. If I saw someone with a terrible history between 7-10 years, but saw a stellar history (backed up by a good mix) in the past 3-4-5 years, I'd be more inclined to loan to that person because they would have demonstrated a turnaround backed by perfect payments across several TLs. Whatever happened in that rough spot, they fixed it and improved. Conversely, if someone has CAs dotted every 2 years for the past 10, whether paid or not, then that shows they aren't serious about credit and won't take the steps to be good in the future.
*ducks and covers*
I'll just throw something out there.
Lets say someone was unemployed and his/her credit sufferred for 3 years and after that he/she bounced back. LEts say during these 3 years said person has 2-3 collections that the person paid off in full. All these are personal situations but many other types of personal situations exist whether it be loss of job or family related or medical you name it.
Would you still think it would be fair to penalize said person for 7 years?
What hte FICO model doesnt take into consideration is personal circumstances.
So said person after 3 years has paid off all his collections but still has lates. So for the next 7 years the person might have to contend with sub prime rates even though they have recovered. Just saying that while I agree that it;s godo to see if someone has been responsible overtime, I think the FICO formula should be made in such a way that it doesnt penalize people who have bounced back and paid all their dues. 7 years is a lot of time to be punished since technically for example a collection, a 120 ,150 days late will affect your score for the full 7 years.
I was in the job loss category while I make no excuses that I should have paid my bills on time, at that time I couldnt do so. So there you have my eternal rant about the why I think the FICO formula should be adjusted.
@AndySoCal wrote:I will dsiagree slightly with some of the other posts. Regarding a collections under a $100 notice the word collection is singular not plural. You could try to good will those collections off your credit report.
I have tried and still trying but so far I have gotten NO's. So although one of the collection will fall off my CR as it said on Dec 2012, the other will continue until 2015.