Credit Repair Question

[Clever Username]

Quick question about credit reporting. My wife and I both have decent credit but each one debt written off on our reports (I owe J Crew $400 from 5 years ago, she owes MCI $200 from a while back).

Question is, if we pay these immediately, how long does it take to come off of our credit reports? Do we have to write the debt holder or the original lender to get them to remove it?
How can we confirm that it's off of there?

We're in the process of getting a mortgage and those minor things could make a big difference, but is it possible these could be resolved and off our credit reports in 30 days? 60?

 

[slevhtown]

If they are from that long ago they probably aren't having too big of an effect on your credit. The FICO scoring process puts a most weight into the last two years

You would want to call both the original creditor and the collection agency, they both have the power to get it off. It will still be on the credit report it will just say paid, as opposed to collection/chargeoff. Because they are from so long ago I'm not sure how much it will impact your score.

They are supposed to be off in 30 days once you get it resolved, but from my experience that is somewhat of a pipedream. I have experience both personally and with clients, (with issues that really hurt them) and it takes a while for everything to filter down, or for the original person you talked to to even do anything. I personally have an SBC collection from when I was in school that shouldn't be there, and I have had a hell of a time getting it off even though the collection agency has admited to me that it was paid and should have never gone into collection. They even said they were removing it as I spoke to them but refused to fax me any kind of confirmation. I repulled my credit about 5 weeks later and it was still there, so they told me to call back in 2 weeks.

The only way to confirm that it is off is to check the actuall report, I wouldn't have your loan officer do it though because that would be an inquiry. I would go to experian.com, sign up for there service and cancel it in less than 30 days, and it is free.

 

[nativeaustin]

Just pay them. It comes off really fast. I had a $560
phone bill my exwife left me with, that I didn't know about until I was trying to buy a house. Its kind of funny, when I called them they said they couldn't get in touch with me. The funny thing that I told them was that I was in their phone book and they never contacted me about it or I would have paid it years before.

 

[JohnnyM]

well if you're set on actually paying it back, make sure you get the creditor to change your report to say that you're current and never have been past due. they can and will be remarkably cooperative if you come to them with a 5 year old debt to repay.

of course, if it really is 5 years old, i'd just tell them to shove it anyway. statutue of limitations, i believe, is 4 years on old debts.

what is your current score anyway? there may be other ways to raise it.

 

[nativeaustin]

On old debt you can make them an offer way lower
than what you owe. Some of the time they will take
your offer instead of taking a total loss.

 

[bevosayshi]

How often has anyone heard of having to file a 1099-C in cases where an original debt was negotiated down (the difference is considered taxable income)? I hear it's rare but that the cc companies have every right to do it in cases as such.

 

[NameAlreadyInUse]

Based on my understanding....

The debt will stay on your report for 7 years if you do nothing. The deliquency will stay on your report for 7 years if you pay it but make no special arrangements.

Either way, you have 2 more years and its off your record. You might need to contact the credit reporting agencies to make sure they remove it after 7 years because they seem to be completely inept, but they are required by law to do so and will at that point no matter what the creditor has to say about it.
I ****** up my credit pretty good in college and learned that debt consolidation through a non-profit where they renegotiate everything is a bad bad thing (at least it was 8 years ago) because all the debts that they negotiate with mark your account as a charge-off. I ended up paying off all the debt about 6 years ago, but that **** lingered for a long time. Some of it I got removed early (after it was paid) by disputing it. The CC companies generally don't want to waste the time on researching and disputing older accounts especially if they are paid, so that is another option you can use if you plan to pay and the creditor won't make a deal with you up front.