Clearing up old collections on my credit

Submitted by pamalea on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 01:44
Forums

I have a collection account on my credit from Palisades. It will be 7 years old in September and I have been waiting until it drops off, but we need to get a mortgage now and the bank is requesting that all of my collections be paid off -- Any ideas how to get a reduced payoff and get it cleared from my credit once it is paid? I also have another old collection with portfolio ... I would like to get these removed from my credit as I don't want to get them paid then have them show up for another 7 years. Any help would be appreciated.

First you have to make sure that it indeed is coming off in September. Remember it comes off 7 years from the last activity date on the account. If it is indeed coming off in September, you should call them and see if they will be willing to cut a deal that includes the whole collection account being removed from your report after payment. If they agree, make sure you get it in writing first. But remember, when you pay off your reduced collection account that it will stay on your report for 7 more years after that since it is now your last activity date. Sometimes you will be able to just dispute the entry with the credit bureaus and have it removed because the collection company won't report on you any more since they have received their payment. [deleted] Violation of forum rules - Richard.

Fri, 04/03/2009 - 02:41 Permalink

Hi Pamalea
Before paying off the debt, check whether the name of both the original creditor and the CA is listed in your report. If both of them are listed in your credit report, you can remove only the CA listing from your report by PFD, but not the OC listing, which will stay there till September. So I would suggest you to wait till September, when the item will automatically get removed.

Fri, 04/03/2009 - 07:21 Permalink

I know when you are looking to buy a house you can get so tempted to just try to jump at the first nice home you come across. My wife and I are looking to buy ourselves soon and after looking at homes for about a month we finally decided that we are best to slow down and pay off some more of our cc debt first before making the plunge and maybe biting off more than we can chew.

Isn't there any way you can wait for the account to just drop off. I don't really think the housing markets are going to explose withing the next 6 months anyways...

Fri, 04/03/2009 - 10:04 Permalink