Which old bills should I pay?

Question

I have some old credit card accounts that I haven't paid on in a couple of years and have been charged off. I have some money to make settlement payments for some but not all of the accounts and I'm not sure which ones it would be best to pay off.

I am trying to start rebuilding my credit and I know that the charge off/negative report will stay on my credit history for seven years but I've been told that it looks a bit better, or less negative shall we say, to pay off the charged off debts. With that being said, is it better to pay off a handful of the larger debts or to pay the smaller ones, which would enable me to pay more of them? There are also some that have stopped reporting to the credit bureaus and others that still do. Should I pay those who are still reporting first or does that matter? Any legitimate advice will be appreciated.

Answer 1

I agree with Eagle101 that you have to pay all derogatory accounts on your credit report with pay-for-delete deals. You may be able to get 50 cents for a dollar deal or even better. The collection agencies resell the collections and reage the accounts so they may come back to haunt you.  

Answer 2

that's a really tough question.  I'm in the same boat as you - I have heard that if more then 2 years passed since your last payment you don't have a legal obligation to start making payments again - and if they are still harassing you, you can actually sue the creditors. If more then 7 years passed since you made a payment, its possible that your slate has been wiped clean, the only way to tell is to call the national credit bureau to get a credit report (I believe your entitled to 1 free credit report per year).  

Answer 3

pay all of them  YEAAAAAAAAAAAY =]

Answer 4

Make sure that your current bills are paid first..

If you have credit cards you are still using pay those off or use the extra money to pay them down...

After that pay off those that are still reporting

Pay off smaller debts first, then you are done with them...

If you have settled with creditors, don't open things back up

if they have truly charged off the debt, leave it alone

Answer 5

dont worry about the ones that are not reporting anymore right now take care of the ones that are. pay any credit card frist  

Answer 6

You should make pay-for-delete deals with all your creditors/collection agencies so that they will delete derogatory info from your credit reports when you pay them. Do not pay them until they send an agreement in writing. You should pay all your current bills in full and on time.  It takes 24 months of timely payment history to build good credit.  

Answer 7

apart from the lecture about paying them all off etc etc etc. my advice would be....

check your credit history file and see which ones will fall off the reporting cycle last.  pay them then you will have nothing put paid off ones showing on the report sooner rather than later