Credit Score? Will It Raise It If Im Able to Pay Very Old Bills in Full?

I am glad to hear you are paying them off regardless but it probably won't raise your score because they are so old.

What you do need to do is when they are paid off, follow up. I pulled my credit after my divorce only to find out stuff that was paid on time was shown as a collection. Apparently they are more than happy to report you less than eager to do the paperwork to correct it. Make sure they send you letters saying they are paid in full so that if you have to hassle with the reporting companies you have proof you paid.

Another thing is when you contact the company ask them what they want to satisfy the debt. A lot of times they will ask for less than the amount owed if there were late fees and what not involved that they really didn't earn. Ya know, like a 500 dollar credit limit and you owe 2,000 they will take less than the 2,000 most of the time.

It takes awhile to raise your credit score. Maybe years.
Yes, you should pay the bills.
Get O. of Dave Ramsay's books and he details how to "wake them up" O. at a time.....you can possibly negotiate a final number less than what was originally owed. They usually don't just "stop" sending the bills--they usually go to a collection agency, and that's worse. have you moved frequently since the debt?
Morally, they need to be paid and it will help your score eventually.

NO. It won't.

What it WILL do is keep your score lower LONGER.

They fall off after 7 years. If you pay the old ones off, then your "clock" starts over from then and you have 7 MORE years. Worse, if you arrange a payment plan, it will be 7 years from THAT last day you pay.

When they design their system to screw themselves over, they have no one to blame but themselves. They *specifically* stop calling or writing people after 3.5 years, because it makes no legal sense for people to pay after 3.5 years. They WILL start phoning like mad after 6.5 years (aka 6mo before the deadline).

When doing the RIGHT thing, screws me over... I've learned that is NOT the right thing to do. Not when they could change their business practice and pull the report, instead of tacking 7 more years onto it.

((WHY the 7 year drop? Because people recognize that other people LEARN A LOT in 7 years. A person can majorly screw up, learn from it, and recover. My dad went from the lowest of the low, to PERFECT in 8 years, and has had perfect credit for over 30 years. You've learned from your mistakes. It's time to allow yourself a fresh start instead of digging yourself deeper. My 2 cents.))

Yes if you pay these bills your credit score will improve but not dramatically like you think. It takes time for credit to improve but it can be done. Before paying off the debt you might want to get in touch with the credit agencies to find out how much your score will improve and what you can do in the future to raise it.

It will go up and fairly soon. But don't expect it to be weeks or even a few months. If you can pay them off and then pay everything on time for a couple of years, you'll be in great shape to buy a house. You really do need to open one credit card and put a few hundred dollars on it and pay it off in about 6 months. Do that again every 6 months or so. This will give you current credit history that will be in good standing.

If you've stopped getting bills for them, they probably have been turned over to collection agencies. At this point, paying them off will probably not improve your score much because it's been so damaged by these debts. Not to say you shouldn't pay them off, but just FYI that it's going to take YEARS of steady, on-time payments to bring your score back up. (It'll take years because bad credit information, in general, stays on your report for 7 years...)

Here's an article you want to read that addresses that question.
http://money.msn.com/credit-and-debt/can-paying-old-bills...

You need to pull your credit report and tackle the most current "delinquent" ones first. Don't just call and pay, call the company and say that you'll pay if they remove the information from your credit report. There is NO law that says a company has to report any of your information to the credit bureaus, and it's completely legal for them to remove that information as they see fit. I think after 4 years they can't actively try to collect a debt (it may be 5 or 7 I forget) so they'll want to play ball. Make sure you get what you want in writing from the company ask them to fax you a letter stating that upon receipt of payment the negative information will be removed from all three credit reports. You want to start with the newest ones first because those are hurting your score more than the old ones. I had some stuff on mine from like 4-5 years prior and I was told that even if I paid it and it was removed it wouldn't do TOO much because of the newer stuff that was negative. Before you go contacting the company to pay contest the information, the credit bureau will send the company a letter asking for proof you owe the debt, with the economy the way it's been debts have been sold multiple times over and if they can't produce paperwork proving YOU owe the debt then it's absolved, some people may feel guilty doing that but you can do it.

No, no, no!

Here's what I know. A friend of mine had some delinquent student loans. It had been 6 years that they were delinquent. She had a windfall of money and paid off the delinquent loans. Guess what? The student loans, instead of falling off of the credit report in 1 year like they would have (because of course, debt only stays on your credit report for 7 years), stayed on her credit for an ADDITIONAL 7 years after the "last transaction date." Which was, of course, the date she paid off the loans. So basically she screwed herself by paying off her loans.

My advice is this. Call your creditors and negotiate a settlement with them. GET THE SETTLEMENT IN WRITING. Part of the agreement should be that they report the amount paid in full as of the date is was last due. For instance, if you stopped paying on the credit card 5 years ago, they mark it paid in full 5 years ago to all 3 major credit reporting agencies. If they won't do that for you, then there is no point at all in paying them, because you're just putting bad credit on your credit report for several years longer than it would have been otherwise.

Here's the thing. Yes, you owe your debts and it's a good idea to pay them. However, there is a contract in place before you ever receive the credit card. The contract says that you pay them, and if you don't, they can unleash hell on you in the form of collections agencies and negative reports to the credit reporting agencies. You didn't pay, they've unleashed hell. Really, in a contractual sense, you have paid your dues. If you want to be nice about it and pay the actual money back to them, they need to be nice about it and help you out with the credit reporting agencies. Just so you know, they've probably already written off your account as "bad debt" and have received a tax deduction for it, so in essence, they've been paid back. This is free money to them at this point. So - before you send them a dime, they need to put in writing that they will mark your account paid in full as of a specific date (the date it was due). As in, "Oops, Experian, we've been reporting this lady past due for years, and she was never past due!" If they won't do it, don't send them money.

You need some professional advice from someone in your area. I suggest going to a bank and asking them what to do or who to go to.

They can also help you to rebuild your credit.

Good luck!