Paid, Closed, Old - Can They Go Away?!

[edanib]

My husband and I are in the process of house hunting and I'm on a mad dash to repair what I can of my credit.

As of last month, my score was 575. I checked this morning and my scores are as follows:

Experian: 632
Equifax: 598
Transunion: 629

I have paid off a few more items that haven't been removed, so I expect a jump I have several items that are paid, closed and have zero balances. They range from 1999 - 2005. Is there anything I can do to remove them? I'd like to have them not show as potentially negative.

I'm VERY new to this and just taking my first stab at repair. Any and ALL advice is welcome!

[chane]

You should never pay off old accounts with getting a Pay For Delete Agreement. By doing so, you give up all of your negotiating power. Now they have their money and they don't have to remove it from your credit report.

So, the best you can do if you already paid it, is dispute it and hope they don't bother verifying it.

[nelly16]

It's going to be very hard for you now, unfortunately. Like Chane said, you've lost all of your negotiating power. But every time you dispute they have to spend time and money verifying. So perhaps if you dispute enough or try a Jack Attack you may have some success wearing them down. And paying them off probably wont give you much of a boost in your scores either since the items are so old. How long before they fall off your report?

[edanib]

All of the balances are paid.

The negatives are as follows:

11/1999 - Bad debt/collection
9/1999 - Bad debt/collection
Not on Record - 120+ days past due
3/2007 - Pays account as agreed
5/2002 - 120+ days past due (student loan)
1/2002 - 120+ days past due (student loan)
8/2000 - 120+ days past due (student loan)
9/1999 - 120+ days past due (student loan)
8/1999 - 120+ days past due (student loan)
6/2004 - Bad debt/collection
Not on Record -120+ days past due (student loan)
Not on Record -120+ days past due (student loan)
Not on Record -120+ days past due (student loan)
Not on Record -120+ days past due (student loan)
Not on Record -120+ days past due (student loan)
10/2002 - Pays account as agreed
11/1999 - Pays account as agreed

The key is that all of these have a zero balance, so there's nothing I can pay on them!

[nelly16]

When did the ones from '99 and '00 first go delinquent? Are the years you listed when the items were opened or first delinquent? If delinquent then they are past the SOL and should be removed from your report. I would imagine you are close to having them drop off anyway and it may be worth just waiting. However with items that old you may have some success disputing. If the CAs don't have information anymore they may not be able to verify and it will be deleted.

[edanib]

Originally Posted by nelly16

When did the ones from '99 and '00 first go delinquent? Are the years you listed when the items were opened or first delinquent? If delinquent then they are past the SOL and should be removed from your report. I would imagine you are close to having them drop off anyway and it may be worth just waiting. However with items that old you may have some success disputing. If the CAs don't have information anymore they may not be able to verify and it will be deleted.

the dates I gave are when they were opened.

[Lian]

The dates of delinquency, and not the dates of account opening, closing, charged-off, referred for collection, DOLA, etc., are what you need to consider.

For each monthly delinquency on an OC account, the credit report drop off date is after 7 years from the individual date of each reported delinquency. This being March of 2011, any monthly delinquency dated prior to March 2004 would now be barred from further CR inclusion. DOFD is not relevant to fall-off of monthly delinquencies.

For COs and CAs, the only date of concern is the DOFD on the OC account. Any CO or CA reported on an account reaches CR bar at 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD on the OC account.
Thiose are the dates of focus.