credit report and monitoring

[lilypi]

here's a question for those of you who have dealt with cleaning up credit. i had two items in collections that i paid off. i have the letters from the collection agencies saying the debt has settled. also, i use credit monitoring through bank of america and both companies have reported that the debts have been settled. my question is this: the

Comments

[satwood]

contact the credit agency's and dispute it.
:)

[freak4music]

Becareful when it comes to cleaning up collections.
Here is the deal...if the last active date on those collections is old (more than say 12 months) but having them update them as paid, it changes that last active date to current...and even though you are updating them as paid it can really bring your credit score down. More than likely those two collections probably will not stop you from obtaining credit, especially if you have recent good payment history, so it may be best to just leave it be.

[lilypi]

i weighed the options pretty carefully before deciding to pay these two. there are some other issues that i'm just letting take care of themselves via the 7 year rule. one of these that i paid just recently became an issue so it seemed the best choice to pay it. the other was a very small (26 dollars) debt put into collections less than a year ago...sprint never sent me a final bill so i forgot about that 26 and it went into collections almost immediately. be wary of sprint pcs!

[freak4music]

:-)
I agree with the first poster then and just dispute through the credit bureau.

[writing_minutia]

I realise there is more discussion after this comment but I just wanted to mention something:

Not all companies have your FICO score be the end-all-be-all, but actually have a human look over your pulled report. When you apply for loans in which score is only a factor, having it resolved may be helpful.

Not to mention the plain psychological aspect- prove that you took care of everything. I don't just call companies when I'm late in hopes that they won't report it, but to elieviate my guilt because I try so hard to be financially responsible.

[swingangel]

It takes, on average, 1-3 months for something to be reported to a credit report. Companies only report once a month, so it's possible that when you paid missed their normal monthly reporting cycle, and they had to wait till the next one. Then it's up to the credit reporting agencies to update it, which depending, can take another month. I would say, if it's not fixed by mid March, then contact the reporting agency and just double check with them that they did update the agencies.

It usually only takes 3 months if they are adding a whole new loan to your report, which is why when you buy a car or house it may not show up for a couple of months. But this, if it's not reporting after the second month, then I would start calling the agencies, both the collections agency and experian/equifax/transunion. Also, each agency has different reporting times, did you pull all three reports, or just one? It's a hassle, and I really believe in credit reform because of things like this.

[writing_minutia]

Takes time, but unless the companies are real arses, it is easy to fix

[sueg]

If you "settled" by paying only part of the debt, it will continue to show up on your credit report as unpaid or possiby as a "Write-off" for several years. I went through this with a client last year who I was helping to get out of debt, called the company and asked about it, and they said that is how it will continue to appear on the report even though it does show up as settled in their accounts. I think I checked with the credit agency too and they confirmed this is correct. Having the letters stating the debt is settled should help if anyone questions you after pulling up your credit report.