question for anyone who has worked to improve their credit. dh's credit is so-so, middle of the road, score. he has a couple of really small debts on there so i want to ask:

have you done this & how did it work out for you?

1. write a letter to the collection agency to negotiate the debt and have it 100% removed from the report (meaning deleted, not just settled)?

2. waited out the 7 years to have it dropped off the credit report?

his debts are 6 years old so i'm debating if it'd be best to let them fall off on their own or should be negotiate them...any suggestions are appreciated

I disputed a couple of marks that were on mine and DH's report if that's what you mean. :shrug They were dropped as soon as we put in the dispute..

If the marks aren't negative and just show up as accumulated debt, i'd just wait the year to have them come off. On the other hand, if they are impacting the score in a big way, and you have some financial plans that require a better score, than i'd give it a shot. But those things take time, annd a lot of paperwork...which may make it take longer than it would have anyway.

None the less, good luck!

I tried to have some old remarks from dh's removed. They were small accounts that he paid late a lot, back when he was young and new to the Navy and didn't keep track well.

I couldn't get anything truly removed, but I was able to clean it up a bit. There was one account showing he never paid $70... he had no idea what that was about, but didn't have records to prove otherwise. So I paid it, and now they all say 'paid as required' or whatever the phrase is. But the delinquincies still show up. We have one more year as well until the last of them fall off. At this point, I don't think they have much impact on his credit score, since our first mortgage really helped build it up.

you can always dispute them, sometimes if they can't prove the debt is yours you can get it taken off, I did that. I had something I honestly don't recall having disputed it and got it removed. :shrug usually though if it's been paid they won't remove it till the time is done.

If you dispute them, and they decide NOT to take them off your credit report, you can "restart" those seven years! If you make any negotiation for payment or any contact through them, then they can "restart" the debt time, so personally, I would just wait.

We have negotiated them to take the debt off my credit report for payment in full, but that was 1 company out of about 20 (I had a pretty bad past :hehe), so the odds don't seem that great in the first place.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, let me know! I have researched the crap out of this! :mrgreen

We've done both. Due to circumstance we had a few things on our credit that we never took care of when we had a really bad time of things at one point. By the time we got into a position to start taking care of that stuff, it had been so long that they were due to be removed anyway. After some research on it for my state, I learned that old unpaid debts will eventually come off your credit, and there is a statute of limitations in which a creditor can take you to court for the debt. That statute applies to the state you reside in, not where the debt was incurred. Sometimes it is simply better to let the old debt fall off your credit because even inquiring about a debt can start up the cycle again.

We also had old debt that kept getting renewed because they would sell the debt to another company. So after most of our old stuff finally fell off the report, we had a few items left that kept getting reported that we knew were far beyond the statute of limitations and also the time frame they should have been removed from our report. We sent dispute letter directly to that creditor in each case. They are required to give you the original debtors name and provide the original agreement. There's more to it than that but I can't recall at the moment. They have 30 days to prove you owe the debt. If they cannot, they have to remove the debt from your credit. This is what occurred for each of the ones we disputed. They couldn't prove them, or they were beyond the statute of limitations.

For a newer unpaid debt, it's probably best to get it paid since it will remain on your credit for some time.

I did a lot of research on this subject and only wish I could share all that I learned since it worked well for us. Just make sure you not only research the federal requirements, know your state's requirements as well. Creditors, especially collection agencies don't always play by the rules and they take advantage of the fact that most people simply do not know how it all works or know what their rights are. There is a lot of information out there if you look for it.

thank you for the info & advice!