subject: Does Removing Old Paid Collection Items On Credit Improve Score? [print this page] It is possible to improve credit score ratings on your own, as long as you are willing to take the initiative to do so. There are a lot of people that choose to employ agencies to help them fix their low scores, but in some instances this drastic step is not necessary. You can save yourself a lot of money if you decide to improve your rating on your own.
Before you can start improving your deplorable rating, you need to have a general understanding of how your rating is determined. There are a few things that are put into a report and then calculated to determine a rating. The number of accounts that you have paid off successfully, past due accounts, and accounts presently in collections will all affect your score.
Good credit that shows that you have accounts that you do not owe any money on, will reward you with more points towards your rating, while bad history or no history at all will take points away from your score. There will be some items that appear on your report that award you with more points than other items do. While you are attempting to repair your rating, it is important that you begin by focusing your attention on the items that are on your report that have the biggest impact on it.
The most obvious way that you can improve your rating is to pay down the balances that are impacting your score negatively. However, most people that are attempting to repair their poor ratings do not have an ample amount of money that they can apply towards past due accounts. The only other thing to do aside from paying down accounts is to see about getting negative things removed from your report.
Anything that is negatively affecting your report can be removed if there is no validation of the charges. You will need to write a letter to one of the reporting bureaus in order to have them look into how the charges on your report originated. If the reporting agency cannot find anything on the originated charges, it will be removed from your report.
In the event that you have had accounts in collections that you paid off, you do not want to have those accounts removed from your report. The reason why is because paid off accounts will reflect positive scores, as opposed to negative. Even though the account was sent to collections before you were able to render the funds to pay for it, the point is you paid it.
Paid collection accounts will have a positive impact on your account, in opposition to unpaid items. Removing the paid items from your report can actually cause your score to decrease. If you want to improve credit score ratings you need to understand what items you should remove and should not remove from your report.
