Credit score help?

how bad will settling a debt affect my credit score as oppose to paying off the debt with interest. Note: the credit card has been closed due to late payments.

Credit score help?

They close, but not charge off, so call them and negotiate the balance, if you pay them in full, they could take off the interest and some charges, because it%26#039;s better get something, than nothing. It will be better, then not to pay at all.

Credit score help?

if it was closed and you had late payments, your credit score was already affected. I can%26#039;t see where paying off the debt will hurt. It may actually help some.

Credit score help?

Disclosure: I am not a lawyer and unqualified to give legal advice.

With that said...

Your credit report has already been updated negatively to show the past due balances. You can settle with them (target about 50% if you can). That will still show up on your credt report as %26quot;Settled balance%26quot; or some verbage like that. It%26#039;s not near as negative as a BK. I%26#039;ve blogged an article at http://www.squidoo.com/creditcardsettlem... if you%26#039;re interested in reading further. You could try to arrange a full payoff but you MUST get their assurance IN WRITING that the account in the credit report (from all three credit reporting agencies) is either deleted or updated to state something like %26quot;Paid on time never late%26quot;. If you choose to pay off the entire balance without the written assurances the negative information will still remain on your credit report for 7 years.

Good luck!

Credit score help?

Not very much at all though you could repair any negativity through credit repair easily. Usually companies charge hundreds of dollars to simply pull your credit and send correctly worded dispute letters閳ユ敄his is the key閳?.people will tell you that you can do this yourself for free but the truth of the matter is that the credit bureaus will throw your letters away or simply reject them. There is an easy to use online kit that will deliver the results you want available for just $19.95 at the source website. A similar kit is being sold via infomercials and radio talk shows for seventy dollars more but they try to solicit you repeatedly for other services after the fact.