how to get rid of an account on your credit report

Submitted by sharonstouchofglass on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 16:38
Forums

We are wanting to remove a negative item from our credit report. It was paid in full and closed in the year 2004. Can this be done and could you please tell how?

Hi sharon
If you want to remove the negative listing from your credit report, you should make the creditor agree for pay for deletion before you make full payment on your debt. However, if you have already made the payment in full, it is very difficult to make the creditor agree to delete the negative listing from your credit report, because since they have got back their money, they will not have any incentive to remove the item from your report.

Fri, 11/07/2008 - 13:25 Permalink

Yes, since you have already paid off the debt in full, it will be listed as "paid in full" in your credit report because you did not have the PFD agreement with the creditor. However, you can contact the creditor and ask him to change the status of your listing from "paid in full" to "paid as agreed" in your credit report. This will help you to improve your credit score. It will only go out of your report completely in 2011 i.e after 7 years.

Fri, 11/07/2008 - 13:29 Permalink

I always tell anyone wanting to pay off an overdue collection to get the pay for delete in writing before submitting any payment. Scott is correct after getting their money they usually do not care about working with the debtor. I do have a question for the community on this matter. What is they difference in paid in full versus paid as agreed? To me they seem to be the same but I imagine there is a difference there.

Fri, 11/07/2008 - 15:31 Permalink

Hi Sharon
The negative listing will stay there in your report for seven years and it cannot be removed completely since you have already paid off the debt in full. All that you can do is to request your creditor to remove the listing from the credit report or change the status of the listing as said by Mary. However, it is very difficult to make the creditor agree to delete the listing from your report once the debt is paid off in full.

Sat, 11/08/2008 - 07:06 Permalink