Hello all, I am a newb who has been lurking for a while. I could really use some help, as I don't know where to begin with my poor credit. I am 26 years old and finally checked my credit, it does not look good, but I am trying to find a way to get out of it. I'm just not sure *what* to do! I have four negative accounts 1. B of A- Charge Off, I don't know how much this is for, I don't even know what it is in reference too, but I hope it will not be more than $500. 2. MedCorp-$186, not a charge off but a negative account. Can I pay it off and get it removed? 3. Student Loan-1,800 Not charged off, again, if paid off, will it be removed from my history and/or affect my score. 4. Student Loan-Charge off. I believe this was in the amount of 2500. I have one account in collections for about $150, I will settle it tomorrow first thing. I am ready to invest money in to repairing my credit-at the very least making payments towards it. But at this point, I'm just not sure if it can even be done. What else can I do to repair my credit? Unsecured credit card? And how long will this take? Can I make serious improvements in a years time? Aside from the two student loans, I can probably settle with other debtors in full amounts. I will have to do payments with for the loans. What can be done about a charge off? I sincerely appreciate any help you can offer, I really need this to get my life back to order. I definitely made mistakes, but mostly, I was completely irresponsible, I don't want to offer petty excuses. Is it too little too late?
So after doing some more digging, I realized that paying off my collection is NOT the best idea. Awaiting your responses to help decide what my best course of action is! Thanks all, in advance!
hey - well im new here too but from how i understand it, its worth paying collections IF you get them to guarantee a removal of the listing once paid, IN WRITING. im in a similar situation to you - at first i just started blindly paying off collectors without requesting the removal in writing. seems that 9/10 times they might remove it anyways but if they dont it will bring down your score by making the account info more recent. seems to me, its more like you CAN get away with not paying them, but why not work towards clearing them out one by one. again it would be great to hear from a senior member on this, but this is my (limited) understanding of how these things work...
Keith is right, paying off collections usually penalizes your score. Paying them off will not get them automatically removed, unless you get an agreement as to such in WRITING. They are harder and harder to come by. The Student Loans will not come off if paid either, however, student loans never die, and have no SOL for collections. In fact, dependent on the type of loan they are, if they get turned over to a CA they can add appx 30% to the balance. If it were me, I would definitely focus on getting those paid.
