     Jason Coffman (Jasonc) | Tuesday, February 29, 2000 - 09:03 pm 
Hello all. Let me start by saying that I have read NUMEROUS discussions here and have seen NUMEROUS opions stated. While I enjoy and have learned a great deal from these discussions, I guess I just need things driven into my head just a bit more. My questions are... I have about 14 or 15 entries on my credit report..7 of which are charge offs. The highest of these is about $2500 and the lowest is $35 (I'm trying to figure out what that one is). Basically I have about $6000 in total charge offs, all to credit cards that are about 2 to 3 years old. I have completely changed my life and got a real job, and in April, my wonderful stock options will mature and I will have more than enough to pay these off. Should I? Morally, yes I should. But I want to purchase a house soon and provide my wife with a car that is safer for her and my daughter. I spoke to a car salesman today who told me that a charge off and a paid charge off are the same. I am feeling quite hardheaded and may try to get my creditors to remove the charge offs in return for full payment. I have again heard that they will remove the charge off, and others say that they wont. Is it worth the hours that I will spend on the phone trying to negotiate this? Should I just pay them off and hope that I can have a huge amount of money to put down on a house? Will my calling and trying to negotiate just reset the 7 year clock on my accounts, or do I actually have to pay them something? |
| kristy welsh - creditinfocenter.com | Wednesday, March 01, 2000 - 07:41 am
If you purchase a home, your mortgage company will require you to pay any charge offs which are listed on your report. Also, if some time has elasped (say 2 years or more) from the time you pay off these charge offs to when you apply for a loan, this will look good to the underwriter and she is more likely to take into consideration any letters of explanation you have concerning these negative listings. Of course no one is sure exactly how much a paid off collection or charge off is going to improve your score in either long or short term.
So I advise you to pay them off now, it's only going to put you in a better position for later on down the road. And you will be forced to pay if you purchase a home anyways. I would also advise that you start opening up other lines of credit in order to "rebuild" your whole credit profile. |
