Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

I have 2 old credit card accounts, one is collection and one is showing charged off as bad debt , that I could payoff in 2 yrs, or I could do nothing and they will rotate off in 4 more yrs. If I pay off the accts, will it improve my score or hurt it? I%26#039;m afraid they%26#039;ll be on my report for 7 more years from payoff date (9 yrs from now) even though finally paid because they were collection accts.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Wow. Lots of conflicting stories here and incorrect information. Here goes:

If you start making payments and then GO LATE AGAIN, then it will restart your 7 year reporting period. However, if you start making payments and are NEVER late again, then the START of the LAST time you had a late payment is the start of the 7 years (it%26#039;s actually 7 years 150 days.)

If you should pay it off or not, is up to you. If you can get the company who charged the debt off to accept a payment on it, then they MUST take it out of %26#039;charge off%26#039; status and just show it as having been late. If you can%26#039;t get them to agree to that, then paying a collection company that now owns the debt wont help you with THAT charge off. It will show a balance of $0 on the collection account which will SLIGHTLY improve your credit score, but not by a lot.

The 7 year period does NOT relate to them being paid off, it relates to LATE payments and DELINQUENT accounts.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Your best answer is only partially correct! If you have a charge off on record for 5 years, but then pay it off, you merely change from a chrg off to a paid late debt, which is still a negative. The 7 year timer starts from the most recent activity extending the time this is on your record! Report It

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

It will help but contact the company once you pay it off and ask them to remove the bad score from your rating...

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

contact them and tell them u r willing to honor the debts but only if they agree to remove them from your credit report. get an agreement to that in writting b4 u pay. if u wait till after they won%26#039;t likely cooperate.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

It will help.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Interesting question. I do not know the answer, but if you owe the money I think you should pay it. That is if you have any morals.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

when u pay off ur score only improves in the real world and also in the spiritual world, Debt is the curse avoid it and watch Suze show!

she is Genius on Debts / loans / credit n debit cards :)

http://www.suzeorman.com/

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

This credit repair comapny can help you improve your score and get those accts. off your report http://rstinson.bettercreditpro.com/

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

If you can, pay it off. Even if it stays on your account, it will show that while you used to not care about your credit, you%26#039;ve now matured and have made the effort to own up to your past and pay the debt. Pay the one in collections first, but talk to the owner of the charged off account for more info on charge offs. Sometimes they still want the money, and other times they don%26#039;t care. Most often they don%26#039;t care, there%26#039;s nothing to apply it to because the account has been charged off.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

You can improve your credit score,which anyway has suffered though a chronic undicharged debt.Better late than never to redeem and have a better credit rating.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Pay off them bills.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

i have heard if you pay it off it goes back on your credit, that older things you shouldn%26#039;t even try to go back to pay for because the damage is already done...

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Yes it would; you can ask them to notify of settlement to the credit agency. By the way, credit correction do not actually correct credit, they can only do what you can do yourself for free.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

This is tough but you can look at it two ways, if you want to improve your credit score asap and can afford to pay, you are going to need to get real familiar with the credit reporting agencies and once you pay off the debt, dispute the item again and again and again until they finally get tired of you and delete, believe it or not this can and does happen, I paid an old debt a few months ago and it was deleted off my credit report two weeks later, it just takes patience.

On the other hand you can just wait 5 years until they come off, because they eventually will be erased but again you must always be aware of your credit reports because they can EASILY forget to erase an old account.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

it will always help to pay it off... even if it%26#039;s slowly... they well appreciate the effort. they can%26#039;t say or do anything to you if you are consistently pay something.

A good financial study I found helpful to me and my family was Crown Financial Studies... you can find that at www.crown.org

Best of luck!! es

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

yes. paying an old debt can hurt your credit because if you pay on something that is more 3-7 years old and you have not paid on it. It will be put back on your credit record for 3 more years each time a payment is made

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

first of all do not assume the debt will go away

IT WILL NOT ! another company will pick it up and the clock resets to zero - with that in mind then the immediate effect will be nill but it will have a positive long term effect

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

What you need to do is negotiate with your creditor to see if they%26#039;d be willing to remove the negative score IF you pay off the loan. If they agree, GET IT IN WRITING! If they do not, then it will drop off after 7 years. Making a partial payment does in fact reset the clock so that it can remain another 7 years (it%26#039;s 7 years from the last transaction).

By the way, one answerer stated that your creditor can sell off your debt and the clock resets. That is HALF true. They can sell off your debt, but the clock, by law, can not reset unless you make some sort of transaction. The 7 year clock is from the last transaction that you, the creditor, initiated.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Well, it can%26#039;t HURT your score! But it won%26#039;t help immediately. I used to operate under the assumption that all my old debt would roll off my report and vanish after 7 years if I left it unpaid. When I took a first-time homebuyer%26#039;s education course at a local low-income non-profit, I found out this assumption is WRONG. The deal is a credit issuer may collect on your debt for 7 years. What they%26#039;ll do is hold it for a period of years (less than 7) and then sell it to another debt-collection agency, which will then be allowed to collect from you for another 7 years, and so on, and so on.... Theoretically, this means your debt can last the rest of your life! Strong incentive to pay it off (or file bankruptcy- which really will discharge after 7 years)

Call your creditors and negotiate a pay-off. Most will accept 50%-75% of your original debt. I have even gotten some of my creditors down to 35% of my original debt. Just be firm with them about how much you have to offer. Offer them a lump-sum payment of 40% and go from there. That is very tempting for a debt-collector who is receiving a commission from any funds he brings in to his company.

They WILL NOT remove the record of your debts from your credit report until 7 years after being paid off in full, no matter what. However, after 2 years of having no bad debt, most any creditor will consider you for a line of credit again. I can testify- I paid off my debt (by negotiating with lump-sum payments), opened secured-line of credit and paid perfectly for two years. I then qualified for a decent home loan. (I also used non-convential credit to get my mortgage loan i.e.: payment history from the electric provider, phone company, etc.. showing on time payments for two years)

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

I agree with Roger. Before you send any money, negotiate a %26quot;pay for delete%26quot; effort so that it won%26#039;t hurt your credit if you pay if off, since they are charge offs and collection accounts and get it in writing. If they decline, you can wait until they fall off with the statue of limitations. (Varies from State to State). The debt should not follow you, even if another collection agency purchases it, because the credit reporting agency, by law, must go by the last payment or last report date of the original creditor. They can hound you for the rest of your life legally, though it should be removed off your credit reports in 7 years.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

you should pay them off because it does hurt your credit sometimes it doesn%26#039;t appear on your credit for some years but the debt is still there and when you do pay make sure to tell them to remove the bad rating on your credit report and check back with them in a month or so to make sure they removed it..good luck

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

Some of the other advice is very poor. First off call the original credit card companies with the original card numbers in hand. Ask them if u can work with them directly. If they will allow it, dicker. Get them to cut the debt in 1/2 and stop the interest. Then set the monthly payment at a rate u know you can pay every month. Be sure to get everything in writing and the acknowledgment that you contacted them and that the new deal will replace whatever is out there now on your report and that they will update the report periodically as they do for all creditors. The final step is to keep good records on your side so that they live up to their side of the deal. If they won%26#039;t erase the old accounts until you have paid off the two new arrangements then that is a reasonable position for them to take; just get it in writing. The law says 7 years from when you stopped paying they drop. But check with the Banking %26amp; Ins. Dept or Consumer Protection Agency in the state where u live. Never, ever use one of those debt consolidation agencies unless u happen to like paying more money than u owe. The account is a loan with the bank but once u default and it%26#039;s in collection or charged off, its a whole new ball game. Good luck.

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

a paid charge off is no better than a unpaid charge off, when it comes to credit score

Will paying old debt help or hurt credit score?

pay your old bills or else it would hurt your cr score