Working with credit bureaus on settled collection

Jasconius

I just finished paying off a collection I had from an omegahuge medical debt today, and my understanding is that doing this does not necessarily remove it from your credit, it just makes it dormant.

I have been given the impression that you can contact credit reporting companies and have them remove the item from your credit if you can provide written proof of settlement (which I have).

Is this true? If so, where can I find out how to do it.

JohnnyCache

You've got a combination of bad information.

Debts don't "go on" or "go off" your credit report. Reported debts are on your credit, with a summary of how timely of a manner you paid/are paying on them.

If you paid this debt in full, it will be listed on your credit report as "Paid in full" for several years (not a bad thing)

If you settled it if will be listed as "settled in full" instead.

What the party you heard you could have it removed was probably referring too is your right to dispute line items in your credit report - you can write the credit bureau, tell them you don't owe the debt, and they will force the creditor to verify it.

Doing this with all your older and third party debt can knock a bunch of items off your report, as collections agency often keep poor records of this stuff.

In any case, the first thing you do is write the credit agency directly for your free annual credit report. Like filing your taxes, companies will try to charge you for this process, but you don't have to pay.

Once you have it in hand, see if the debt your concerned about is actually listed and how.

Then, write in requesting any corrections you feel are warranted.

In your situation, you probably want to make sure they list the debt as settled rather than outstanding.

repeat this process with all the major credit reporting agencies (equifax, experian, and transunion)

The optimum solution, btw, is to negotiate your credit reporting as part of your settlement - many creditors will willingly list you as "Paid in full" rather than settled in full, even if you settled, if you arrange it before you give them the money.