I know everybody is always advising to settle for deletions, but unfortunately I didn't do that. I let a bunch of credit cards go late and then I settled them for less than full value. They are being reported as "pays as agreed" but they are all still negative items on my reports because of the late payment historyies. I understand that it's going to take several years for those late payments to cycle off my history. But how heavily are those going to actually weigh on my scores once all my accounts are in good standing? Will I still be screwed until they cycle off, or will my scores gradually increase to a respectable level as those late payments get older and older? Thanks for any help...
Old late pays on your credit reports will have less and less of an effect on your FICO scores as time passes. As long as you're doing everything right now and making payments on time, you should continue to see improvements in your scores.
