Removing a settled debt from your credit report

[purplepenguin7]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with getting a settled collection account removed from your credit report?  My husband made some stupid mistakes about 2 years ago and didn't pay something off he was supposed it and it fell through the cracks.  By the time I found out what had happened it was already it had already hit both (co-signed account) of our credit reports and we couldn't afford to pay it off in full.  Now we've paid it down and have some extra money to settle it out.  I'm wondering if I did settle now, will come off of my credit report sooner than 5-ish years we have left?  If it won't, I am tempted to keep the money we have on hand and continuing paying it monthly.  But I would HIGHLY like to get it off of my credit report and bump up my FICO store as much as possbile. thanks!

[mcsangel2]

1) Whatever option you choose, it won't come off your credit report until the 7 years are up. 2) The best thing for your credit is to pay in full. Settled in full might be better than open but paying as agreed, but it can be a year or two before your score sees that benefit (of course your score will stay low as long as the item is open at all). But for the rest of the five years it's on your report, creditors can see you had a settled account, which means you are a higher credit risk. 3) The best thing to do can depend on what type of debt it was originally, and whether or not it's being collected by a law firm/they are considering taking it to court to get a judgement (which usually depends on how much it is).

[mich1]

In my experience, nope.

I had an medical bill that wound up in collections. Stupid story, but I tried to pay the final bill, was quoted an amount that was supposed to be everything that I owed and was quoted a number $70 short. I paid it all and assumed I was paid in full until I got a call from collections a year later, in the meantime no bills from the lab, no calls....nothing. I tried to negotiate with the lab unsuccessfully, so finally paid the collection in full. It just recently fell off my credit report. It stopped having a large impact about 2-3 years after it was paid off.