My credit score... need advice?

Question

I just found out that I have been in collections for 2 years (without EVER being contacted) for a past cable/internet bill that my roomies and I forgot to pay when we moved out of our apartment. I paid it once it came to my attention. I'm wanting to do a Line of Credit increase with my bank so that I can pay off my smaller credit card bills and just have one large payment (with better interest rates) each month. I tried to increase it over a year ago and wasnt approved. I'm just wondering how long this collections bill will stay on my credit report... and any other suggestions of what I can do to make sure I get an increase in my Line of Credit would be very helpful to.

Thanks

Answer 1

It looks better to the bank if it's paid, although FICO scores it the same whether it's paid or not.

As NK said, wait a year or so after you paid it and then send letters to the credit reporting agencies stating you have no record of owing the debt (this is accurate, since you were never dunned).  There's a decent chance that since the collection agency has been paid, they won't bother to verify the account with the bureaus.

The fact that you were never contacted doesn't mean much, especially since you moved since the bill was owed and you probably didn't provide a forwarding address.

Answer 2

To raise your credit score you need to do two things:

1 - add positive things to your credit records.  Such as paying your bills on time!

2 - Remove negative things from your records.  These may be mistakes made by the credit report companies or bills you haven’t paid!

If your problems aren’t too bad or too complicated than you can do this yourself.  This review site gives you e-books to explain the process and guide you through it:

<>http://www.onlinebestinformation.com/cre...

if your problem is complex - or you just don’t have the time or patience to do it yourself then you will want to use a credit repair company.  This review site will guide you to the three best companies to use:

<>http://www.onlinebestinformation.com/cre...

Good Luck!

Answer 3

it will actually stay for 5 more years but its impact will be lowered in the next couple of years. You paid it off and that is good. You should have gotten a pay for delete letter from collections but you didn't get it. Talk to the collections to see if they can have it removed. You can actually dispute it with credit bureaus that you were never notified of your past bill. But that remains to be seen. Since you have paid it off (to collections I assume), if you dispute it, they will likely not report it back to bureaus. It would be better if you do it a year from now since many collections will expunge records older.

Answer 4

go to http://www.cellsware.info/restorecredit