Old medical debts are hurting my credit

Unfortunately, having paid off these medical collection accounts will not make them fall off your credit report, nor will it negate the damage that these delinquent items already caused to your credit score. Although paying an old debt forces the collection agency to stop reporting it as an unpaid, delinquent obligation, any past derogatory marks on the account will remain on your credit report for seven years from the date that the account was charged-off by the creditor. This fact means that paying off an account will probably not result in the immediate and dramatic improvement in your credit rating that you were expecting when you decided to pay these accounts; however, had you not paid these debts, they would have continued appearing as derogatory items would have continued to ding your credit rating with each passing month.

Paying off the debt is like taking your hand out of a fire; although the burn will cause you pain long after you've pulled your hand from the flame, at least now your body can begin to heal. Now that they are paid, you can begin to rebuild your credit score, though the old derogatory information is likely to hurt your credit rating for several years. As time passes, the account's age and your building up new, positive credit lines should cause the impact of the old debt to become less and less of an issue. Unfortunately, if these are valid credit report entries, you cannot simply have them removed; however, by paying them off and working to build new credit accounts with good payment histories, you should be able to overcome this blip in your credit history.

I hope this information helps you Find. Learn & Save.

Best,

Bill

Bills.com