I’ve paid off two of my collection accounts this past week. Both have already dropped from Experian, giving a small bump. It’ll be nicer when they drop from Equifax because nearly every credit application I’ve made in the past year has pulled EQU, and one has been mis-reporting as a past-due installment account.
There’s one other collection remaining but I’ve decided not to pay it. One, they’re only reporting to TransUnion and virtually none of my credit requests have pulled TU. Two, they’re trying to jack me for about 80% in fees and interest — I offered to pay the original amount and they countered with just 1/3rd off of the fees. And three, the statute of limitations is long expired and it will no longer be eligible for reporting around the end of the year. Fuck ‘em.
My only remaining credit blemish on EXP / EQU will be some late payments a long time ago on a Capital One card. As soon as the collections clear on EQU I’ll try a handwritten sympathy letter asking CapOne to drop the late reports. It probably won’t work but trying only costs 10 minutes and a stamp…
