I have a collection for an old credit card debt that I am wanting to pay off. I am trying to rebuild my credit score. Currently it is in the low 500's. Would it be more beneficial to pay the amt in full, or should I set up a payment schedule? I am new to all of this and not sure how it all works. Do regular/timely payments count once the debt has gone to collection? I appreciate any help advice.
It's a little over a year. It shows on my credit reports as being charged off, but I don't see it listed on my report with a collection agency.
Do you know that date and amount of the charge-off? It will probably be sold soon by the OC to a JDB. I would wait for now. If you haven't heard anything, no news is good news. Paying it now won't really help you score that much.
It all depends on your jurisdiction, the amount of the debt, and your situation. Generally, paying a charge-off does not increase scores by virtue of the payment itself. That is too say, simply because it is notated as a paid charge-off won't help you with respect to a FICO score. However, if you can negotiate a deletion or even better, a paid as agreed status it will help. A "paid" charge-off will even help in terms of utilization if it's reporting as past due, your utilization otherwise is out of whack, so on and so forth. Keep in mind that if it's a large debt, they may sue you for it so you'd be well advised to pay it if this is the case. You may consider disputing it if it has some rather obvious inaccuracies. However, being that it is so recent, a deletion would be rare in this instance. Still worth a shot. If not, try and arrange a favorable status in terms of how it will report.
