Small $275 PAID Cell Phone Collection Bill over 2 years..!!

It will stay on your record for seven years, But I think if you have other open paid accounts that they should actually offset this one negative. That stinks that one can do this much damage, especially since you have already paid it. Can you send the company a good faith letter and beg them to remove it for you?

That is a good idea but what is a good faith letter. I never heard of one. I also recently learned here on the forum that the higher your credit score the bigger the hit if you get a negative or a hard inquiry.

If you just paid the debt and it just hit your CR it will have a huge effet on your CR since it looks like you have aquired recent deliquencies. Once it has aged a few years (a paid listing) it will not have quite the effect it does now.

that is good to know CMBV22, never thought about that, I guess it would also indicate money problems if they start reporting recent delinquencies. How old do you think older delinquencies are before they are not as relevent? Just curious, I have a few that are paid and they are a few years old, they are not set to fall off until 2011, but reflect paid in full.

It would make sense for a finance company that is looking at giving you a loan to look more at your current situation. Say the look four years back and see that you had a lot of delinquencies then they look at you for the last three years you have had a perfect record and have been keeping things where they need to be. You are more likely to get the loan even though there is four years ago a bad record, you past three years would be a good reason to say yes and lend you the money.

so it shows that even though things may seem rough at the time, keep plugging away and you will soon see the light of day, so hang in there and keep trying, that is all you can do.

Hi jackdorsey
Although you now have high balances in your credit cards, the debt that went to the collections made your credit score low. Normally, this negative collection listing will remain in your credit report for seven years and hamper your credit score. However, the credit score increases gradually depending upon your current payments. This decrease in credit score therefore, will not sustain for seven years and will increase gradually depending upon your payments and the balances on your credit cards.

If you pay off a collection, it does not necessarily improve your credit score because the negative listing stays in your report for seven years. However, before paying off a debt to the CA, if you had made a written pay for deletion agreement with your CA, your credit score would have increased soon after you have paid off the debt. However, since the debt is already paid off, you can request your CA to change the listing from "paid" to "paid as agreed". I hope that this will improve your credit score.

Hi jackdorsey
The negative listing does not necessarily come out of your credit report soon after you pay off the debt in full. It will only come out when your seven years and six months time period becomes over from the date you first missed your payment. Your credit score would have increased before the expiry of this seven year time frame only if you had made a pay for deletion agreement with the creditor before paying off the debt in full. However, you can now ask your creditor to change the status of the listing from "paid" to "paid as agreed". I think that this will improve your credit score.

Still if you pay before you ask them to delete it they usually have no incentive to go back and change it. I think this is something the credit world needs to change. I think if you go back and pay soemthing they could at least take it off with in two years instead of letting it linger for 7 and a half. That is ridiculous.