Hi everyone. I am at my wits end. My wife really wants a home. We have enough for a down payment, covering around 20% of what we can afford. She has a quality FICO score and has owned her own condo from before we were married (which we will be putting on the market soon). I, on the other hand, am lagging behind, severely. I have 5-6 nickel-and-dime medical charge offs on my credit report totaling around 3K. They are from approximately two years ago. Will it help me, in any way, to simply pay them off and have the accounts rendered "paid in full?" Or am I simply wasting my money by paying these debts and not busting my ass to get them deleted? I understand that this site advocates for consumer rights and, typically, advises individuals to fight for the entire elimination of those tradelines; but, specifically, how bad would it hurt someone to simply pay debts like these in full? I'm trying to tell her to be patient, but she's got house fever... Thanks guys.
It "probably" will up the date of last activity on these collections accounts and actually hurt your scores. In other words, you "need to bust your ass" to get them off. If you wish to pay them off later, good, just be advised that doing so may cause them to re-appear (presuming you can delete them in the first place).
