How can I get PAID collections off my credit report ?

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Vic
All accurate information, whether positive or negative, stays on your credit report for a minimum of 7 years.

Bankruptcies are reported from 10 years from filing date or 7 years from discharge/dismissal date. Tax liens stay on for 7 years from the date paid (or indefinitely until paid).

As time goes by, the importance of the negative information on your credit report diminishes, provided that positive credit has been re-established. The actual FICO score itself only takes into account the last 24 months of credit history.

Where did you get the information about the FICO score only using the last 24 months?
If that is true, that would be great news for a great many people, but I believe you are mistaken.

AFAIK, FICO uses everything on your credit report, which as you said, is 7 years history.
They do of course, weight the impact of items based on how long ago they were.

EDIT: As other's have said, the answer to the question is that you cannot get it off of your report. You just have to wait 7 years. But the impact it has on your score will gradually go down as time passes.

 

[Zombie]

Bankruptcies are reported from 10 years from filing date or 7 years from discharge/dismissal date. Tax liens stay on for 7 years from the date paid (or indefinitely until paid).

ok then define discharge/dismissal ? Are we talking about paid dismissal or do you mean it just goes away after 7 years regardless of weither its paid or not ?

 

[Nocturnal]

I know all too well how you feel. I have a few 30/60 and even one 90 day late payment marks on my credit report. Those tarnish my credit for five more years until they're knocked off. It sucks, as it does do damage to my credit.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Zombie

Bankruptcies are reported from 10 years from filing date or 7 years from discharge/dismissal date. Tax liens stay on for 7 years from the date paid (or indefinitely until paid).

ok then define discharge/dismissal ? Are we talking about paid dismissal or do you mean it just goes away after 7 years regardless of weither its paid or not ?

Bankruptcy discharges/dismissals are determined by the bankruptcy court. It is the date the court legally declares that the consumer is released from bankruptcy protection. "Paid" IMO is the wrong word as most consumers seek bankruptcy protection in order to avoid paying their creditors. But, if you wish to use that word, "discharge" would be "paid" (meaning that the court determined that the consumers had adequately satisfied his/her obligations to their creditors as determined by the court -- this may be a relatively quick decision, as in "liquidation" bankruptcy chapter 7, or after years of payments to a bankruptcy trustee, as in "re-organization" bankruptcy chapter 13), and "dismissal" would be "unpaid" (meaning that the court determined that the consumer was capable of paying his/her debts on their own without the assistance of bankruptcy protection).
Either way, the court's action will be on the consumer's credit report for the following 7 years.



Shanti, my mistake -- it's the last 24 months of payment history, not overall credit history. I mis-typed. Items like major derogs and length of credit history goes back as long as the information remains on the credit report. The weight of a 30 day slow pay, for example, becomes so insignificant that after 24 months it is no longer counted against the score at all. There is a flip side to that though, as nothing is more immediately harmful to a consumer's credit score that a very recent slow payment (especially 90 days late).
I would love to document where I got this information for you, but I got it from an actual representative of Fair Isaac when they gave a seminar on credit and credit scoring at my company a few months ago.


edit: Contrary to popular myth, credit scoring is not the only factor lenders take into account when underwriting a consumer loan request. If that was the actual case, lenders would simply request the score and not the whole report.

 

[StageLeft]

I do believe that inquiries are on there for only 2 years and affect fico for 12 months, correct?

Shouldn't your mother, father or legal guardian be held responsible for not teaching you this life lesson?

Yeah, but more and more parents can't teach their kids anything, especially since most adults have the financial sense of a 7 year old, so in those cases it's nice for school to try and teach the kids

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I do believe that inquiries are on there for only 2 years and affect fico for 12 months, correct?

Lenders only see inquiries for the previous 90 days, but they do affect credit scoring for 12 months.
Except when there is an excessively large number, inquiries have very little effect on the credit score. Inquiries that lead to a new approved credit line are removed, so only inquiries where either the lender turned down the consumer or vice versa show up (except in cases where the inquiry was done by a broker instead of the lender).

 

[Zombie]

Bankruptcies are reported from 10 years from filing date or 7 years from discharge/dismissal date. Tax liens stay on for 7 years from the date paid (or indefinitely until paid).

Ok, What does discharge/dismissal mean when there is no court/bankruptcy involved? What if it was sent to collection for couple thousand dollars? I think that was the original question.

thanks.

 

[bcterps]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
I know all too well how you feel. I have a few 30/60 and even one 90 day late payment marks on my credit report. Those tarnish my credit for five more years until they're knocked off. It sucks, as it does do damage to my credit.

I had 2 30 day and 1 60 day late payment marks from when I was in college (about 4 years ago), but if you keep things clean, your credit shouldnt be affected too much. My FICO score is at 717 right now, which is pretty good.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Zombie
Ok, What does discharge/dismissal mean when there is no court/bankruptcy involved? What if it was sent to collection for couple thousand dollars? I think that was the original question.

thanks.

Collections and bankruptcies are 2 entirely different things. When discussing credit, the terms discharge and dismissal are specific to bankruptcies. Collections are either paid or unpaid.

A collection for a couple thousand dollars would probably be followed by civil action and a court judgement if the consumer resisted attempts to pay the debt.

I don't handle collections or anything like that. When it comes to credit reports, I just evaluate them in order to determine credit worthiness.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: Zombie

Bankruptcies are reported from 10 years from filing date or 7 years from discharge/dismissal date. Tax liens stay on for 7 years from the date paid (or indefinitely until paid).

ok then define discharge/dismissal ? Are we talking about paid dismissal or do you mean it just goes away after 7 years regardless of weither its paid or not ?

Bankruptcy discharges/dismissals are determined by the bankruptcy court. It is the date the court legally declares that the consumer is released from bankruptcy protection. "Paid" IMO is the wrong word as most consumers seek bankruptcy protection in order to avoid paying their creditors. But, if you wish to use that word, "discharge" would be "paid" (meaning that the court determined that the consumers had adequately satisfied his/her obligations to their creditors as determined by the court -- this may be a relatively quick decision, as in "liquidation" bankruptcy chapter 7, or after years of payments to a bankruptcy trustee, as in "re-organization" bankruptcy chapter 13), and "dismissal" would be "unpaid" (meaning that the court determined that the consumer was capable of paying his/her debts on their own without the assistance of bankruptcy protection).
Either way, the court's action will be on the consumer's credit report for the following 7 years.



Shanti, my mistake -- it's the last 24 months of payment history, not overall credit history. I mis-typed. Items like major derogs and length of credit history goes back as long as the information remains on the credit report. The weight of a 30 day slow pay, for example, becomes so insignificant that after 24 months it is no longer counted against the score at all. There is a flip side to that though, as nothing is more immediately harmful to a consumer's credit score that a very recent slow payment (especially 90 days late).
I would love to document where I got this information for you, but I got it from an actual representative of Fair Isaac when they gave a seminar on credit and credit scoring at my company a few months ago.


edit: Contrary to popular myth, credit scoring is not the only factor lenders take into account when underwriting a consumer loan request. If that was the actual case, lenders would simply request the score and not the whole report.

If that is true, then it is still very good news. At least for me. The vast majority of negative information on my credit report is late payments. I have numerous 30's, quite a few 60's, and a few 90+ lates on my report. But virtually all of them are from 3-5 years ago when I was a starving student and had to pick groceries over credit card payments.
My credit is virtually perfect over the past 2.5 years since I got a real job and could finally afford to pay all my bills on time.
Not sure what my score is, but 2 years ago, it was around 475 and 1 year ago when I bought my house, it was around 575.
I should really check it now since I'm starting to get better and better pre-approved offers in the mail and I actually got approved to finance some furniture at Meier & Frank a couple weeks ago, something that would have been impossible a year ago.