sweetie, it's not good to have an open or a closed collection. Both a VERY NEGATIVE. If you are going to pay the collection account, I would first send a letter to the CA and request that on submission of payment, the collection account will be removed form your credit file. Let them know if they refuse to remove the collection from your CR, you're not willing to have a "paid collection" on your credit report. If it's a large collection, you don't want to risk getting a judgemnt against you either. The ball is in your corner. I'm a newbie to this site, but I'm also pretty darn aware that collection accounts, paid or not, are detrimental to your credit.
