Hi Folks,
Anyone use a service?
The short version is $250 per item removed, with a $295 processing fee. All 3 bureaus, 1 cycle clean up.
I’ve learned the hard way that paying off collection accounts doesn’t up your score.
soo… that being said, I now know to negotiate with the creditor to get the collection removed.
I imagine the credit service isn’t doing anything I can’t do myself, but is the advantage that it will take them less time?
I havent tried yet myself, but I have heard that the credit bureaus dont like the professional repair companies and they dont respond well to them. It is supposed to be more effective if you do it yourself.
realnew,
gather all three reports. All three should have all colletions efforts on them. call each collector and negotiate a settlment. After settling on your acct, have them fax you a letter stating you settled on the account. Fax that letter to all three agencies and have them update your report. repeat as necessary. you’ll see your score improve in a month or two.
Good luck…
your credit wont improve if you pay the collections…they would just show up as paid collections but it wont improve your credit score at all!!. The way you might get the collections removed is to validate the collections accounts…you can take it or leave it…good lock!!
Be careful because many of these companies will not help your credit and will just take your money. Also, short term, even with the legitimate ones, your credit score could suffer, but the good ones can help you over time to improve your credit.
Paying off collections will bring down your score short term because any trade lines that are reporting active within the past 24 months have the most weight on your credit score, negative or positive. So if these collections were more than 24 months old, and you pay them off, the trade line will show active this month. Despite the fact that your credit report will show that it is paid, it is still a negative credit line, so it will bring your score down, short term. You should not pay off any old collections before applying for a loan or having a lender pull your credit.