Whether your attempts to pay for delete are successful can depend on whether you’re dealing with the original creditor or a debt installment loans no credit check Birmingham collection agency. As to the debt collector, you can ask them to pay for delete, says McClelland. This is completely legal under the FCRA. If going this route, you will need to get that in writing, so you can enforce it after the fact.
What to keep in mind, however, is that pay for delete with a debt collector may not remove negative information on your credit history that was reported by the original creditor. The creditor may claim that its contract with the debt collection agency prevents it from changing any information that it reported to the credit bureaus for the account. That said, some debt collection agencies take the initiative and request that negative account information be deleted for customers who have successfully paid their collection accounts in full.
Before taking this step, consider how collection accounts may be impacting your credit score. The FICO 9 credit scoring model, for instance, doesn’t factor paid collection accounts into credit score calculations. So if you’ve paid off or plan to pay off a collection account, then you may not need to pursue pay for delete if your only goal is improving your credit score.
Important
If you’re waiting for a debt to become time-barred. i.e. past the statute of limitations in which collection actions can be enforced, it’s important to avoid restarting the clock-which can occur if you make any promise to pay.
Hiring a credit repair firm is another option for paying to delete bad credit information. Credit repair agencies essentially do the work for you by contacting the credit reporting agencies and providing objections to errors contained in the report or requesting that items that are untrue or incorrect be removed from the report, says McClelland. In this instance, you’re not necessarily paying off any outstanding balances. However, you will pay a fee to the credit repair firm to act on your behalf in having negative information removed.
