Just curious if anyone knows, either directly, or just extrapolating what they think the affects of collection accounts are. In the scoring model, is the first one the most detrimental, and a second and third don't hurt so much? Or does it take a second or third to actual may a major negative impact? Does paid or unpaid matter? And what about size? Does a $20 account vs. a $500 account differ in their affects on your score? I'm just wondering about diminishing returns on attempting to get 3 removed; two on Equifax (one $68 Sprint, one paid hosp. bill); two on Experian (the duplicate Sprint bill), and three on Transunion (two dupe Sprints, one paid hosp bill). Any thoughts/experiences? I've always thought of Transunion as kind of the "nobody really uses them much" of the three, but I could be wrong. Thanks for the input. David
My own impression is that collections which are paid are somewhat better than unpaid although its not a really big difference. The analysis seems to be that the fact a collection was entered says more about your likliehood not to pay on time in the future than whether or not you paid it later. The effect of collections does seem to lessen significantly with time. So much so that by the time they are 5 or 6 years old they seem to have little or no effect.
Also the amount of the collection seems to have little bearing on its effect. My wife has an 11.00 collection which is keeping her scores in the dumper.
