Your thoughts we be greatly appreciated

Lots of choices available to you. You can search for and use a PFD (pay for delete) letter. CA's are notorious, however, for recording the ABA routing number, account number, and all the relevant details off your check when you send them a check, so don't ever use your personal check with a Collection Agency, Collection Attorney, or Junk Debt Buyer. Use a money order instead if you choose to do PFD.

Also, you can get copies of your three credit reports and dispute the entry as " inaccurate, please delete this account from my credit report ".

Do yourself a favor, as it pisses off Collection people no end, and OPT OUT. If you don't, they can purchase your name and vital information without having " permissible purpose " to do so. You can opt out permanently at (888) 5 OPT OUT.

Do NOT send a Debt Validation letter at this point. It may be appropriate later, but not yet. Does Cap One show up on your credit reports, or a
Collection Agency?

Remember this when you are negotiating---in writing, NOT on the telephone: for a six year old debt of $300, your collection agency probably paid $20-$30 for your account. Remember that when you are trying to decide how much to offer them to delete the account.

Collection agencies are shady, unethical companies as a general rule, so don't trust them any farther than you can throw them.

 

You have two basic options:

1) Leave the Capital One tradeline alone and let it fall off on it's own. Through what you've conveyed above, this should happen on or about 12/01/2008 "if" they are reporting the date of initial delinquency accurately. This is Capital One so I have my reservations that they are however, it is really two old to mess with at this point. In doing so, you run the danger that the will misplace the date of status and that could do some severe damage;

or,

2) Dispute the tradeline through the credit reporting agencies. Pinpoint the inaccurate date of status, balance history, lack of credit limit, etc. There may be a few data fields absent per each credit reporting agency. When they fail to mark the account as being in dispute, file a complaint with the Virginia Corporation Commission. If that doesn't resolve it, dispute it once more and assuming the same outcome is produced, consider litigation. The downside to this method is that they may sue you for the underlying debt however, this is unlikely insofar as it is probably time-barred in your jurisdiction. You'll need to check. Moreover and again, they may foul the date of status and this would hurt you in terms of FICO scores.

Honestly, the best method is to leave this alone in that it is too old to be affecting you much. Furthermore, it appears to be your oldest tradeline thus, although it is derogatory, removing it may do more harm than good because it comprises a large segment of your history.

The easiest and most efficient way to increase your scores now would be to add some tradelines. That isn't to say that you would get these alone rather, you would be placed upon someone's accounts as an authorized user. I don't know your scores but my suspicion is about a 600. This would put you in range for some Merrick products, AMEX Delta Sky Points, Union Plus and possibly a Barclay's or two depending on their mood the date of your application. Still, opening brand new accounts will not help your scores "much" if any because they will be well, new, and you will take an inquiry for them. Instead, see if a friend or relative has some cards that they would be willing to place you on. Do this if the account is at least a year old, has never been late or at least not in the last two years, and has utilization below 30%. If this is not an option, some companies perform this service. If you elect to go down this path, be sure to check prices and licensing before engaging in any agreements. Some are much better than others.

All in all, with a couple "positive" accounts reporting, a 680 is within the realm of reason.

 

Unless it's stated otherwise, the OP is dealing with Capital One. Now, it's probably with Allied Interstate, NCO, OSI Collection, or Northland but, those guys don't report for Capital One. Moreover, paying them would do nothing to effect a change with Capital One's tradeline. Capital One isn't known to be willing to even consider a pay-for-delete and even if they were, it's a time barred debt. In addition, they don't typically sell off accounts so I can see no reason to even consider paying this now.

In my opinion, this account is really not the cause of the OP's lower FICO scores in any event . . . this one is probably worth letting go and I rarely say that.

 

Yes, we are guessing about who is reporting the account, I agree. Better to wait until OP clarifies.