Help! Am I going about this in the right way?

[EllieTrelle]

Forgive me if this is long, but I want you all to have the whole story...

My husband and I both have some pretty bad credit. Mine are all from 2 years+ ago, but recently have began to clean it up. I was reading online about Pay to delete letters, but didn't realize they had to be sent to the original creditor.

I drew up four letters for myself and three for my husband and sent them off to the CA. I received a few flat out denials, but I had two say they would take the settlement then mark my account as "settled in full". They informed me that from there I would need to dispute it with the Experian, Equifax, etc. and they would be the ones to remove it after verifying it was indeed paid.

HOWEVER, after doing a lot of reading online I keep getting the feeling that this is very hard to do. I already paid one, but am waiting to pay the others because I don't want to pay something then not be able to have it removed. I am stressing really bad over this because I want to repair our credit, but this is a lot to take in.

Am I going about this the right way? Would it be better to go with Sky Blue or one of the companies I've read about on here?

[chane]

Marking it "settled in full" will still be negative. But, not only will it still be negative, it will look like it just happened and stay on for 7 more years. So, I would absolutely not take that offer.

If they are not going to be cool enough to remove it once you've paid it, then just don't pay it. Attempt to get it off other ways, like the 1-2 punch.

[EllieTrelle]

They told me that they are unable to delete it because they are a CA and not the original creditor. I was told that I had to do it this way then dispute it in order to get it removed.

Are they just feeding me a bunch of bull? Can I not dispute it to have it removed with that status on the account? Sorry, I am completely clueless as to all of this!

[chane]

If they are reporting it, they can delete it. They can't delete what the OC has posted, but they can delete what they have.

[Lian]

What would be the grounds for disputing with the CRA?

Paying a debt is not grounds for dispute of the continuing posting of the information to your CR. A dispute would have to allege that the information was inaccurate or incomplete.

The CRA does have the ability to delete their own reporting of the CA to your CR, but has no ability to delte anything posted by the OC. Upon paying the debt collector, both the OC and the CA must update the balance owed on their accounts to $0.

After paying the CA, your recourse would be limited to asking for GW deletion unless you have a legitimate dispute of accuracy.

It appears that the debt collector just blew you off with incorrect information by telling you to dispute with the CRA for removal based on payment of the debt.