if you have a particular account thats been re-sold a couple times but you have settled that debt with the most recent collector dispute any other collectors that are still reporting that debt.. 99% of the time you will be able to get all those removed, although there may be that one company that will only agree to change the status to $0 balance... keep disputing with all 3 bureaus..

i met my boyfriend in sept 08 and he had 14 collection accounts, 2 vehicles that were paid off but lots of lates and maybe 2 postive accts after going through a divorce...his score was around 500

we called each of the creditors, settled all the accounts, everything came off but one energy company..his score is now a 685 and he was able to purchase a home this winter.

Quote Originally Posted by couponmom2008 View Post
I am currently in the process of trying to clean my credit at this very moment. I did order a credit report from all 3 Bureaus. My score is a little over 550. It is a process and can get annoying calling collection agencies.
The one biggest thing that I found on my credit report is that once my accounts were sold off to other collection agencies over a period of some years the previous collection agency information stays on your report making it look pretty bad. So I had to track down which accounts of mine belonged to which collection agency and then call the collection agencies that didn't have them no longer and request to have them removed.

Some things I was told would not come off until 7 years (from the charge off date).
Like my car account. I defaulted and had my car repossed and I used the money that was given to my husband (from his mother) to pay the settlement of $4000. I found out that the collection agency never reported it to my original lender and they are still on my report so now I have to dispute it (along with many others).

I was told that it helps to make payment arrangements with the collection agencies as opposed to paying them off immediately (unless they settle) and have them report it to the agency as paying as agreed.