I had a Macy's card which I used for a very small purchase (about $7) which I thought I had paid off, (because my online acct showed as zero) but recently realized had never been paid and had accumulated late charges of over $130. The account was handed over to UCB and i have been getting at least one call a day from them. I checked my credit report and it shows that it has been charged off and is listed as a negative item on my credit report. I'm sure it has affected my score, since it had previously been quite a bit higher. Can someone advise me on this? Is there anyway to have this completely removed from my credit report? While I think Macy's is essentially screwing me, I'm willing to pay it off, just to improve my score. Any thoughts?
First get a complete validation of the debt. Then write them a "I'll pay it all IF you agree to remove the item from my credit report" letter. In the meantime close your bank accounts to avoid any unpleasent surprises.
Paying it off will hurt your score more than it will help. It will show up as a paid collection which will remain for the full amount of time allowable. It will hurt your score for a while but even though upaid it will have less and less effect the older it gets. Your newer good credit listings will show up and soon far outweigh that one negative report. In the meantime be sure to demand validation of the debt within the 30 days after any initial contact they might send you. Keep any and all correspondence with them, even phone call records. If you want to try to pay it off in return for having it removed from your credit reports then play it safe and do a search here on this board using the word WESTCAP as your search term. It is a method that was advocated by someone long ago and might work. I've never used it but the idea looks good. Might work and might not but it is better then just trusting them to do it.
