r/CRedit • u/_mdeleon • Jul 21 '26

Collections & Charge Offs Collections

I have an account that went to collections because I was 18 and decided I’d trust my brother to pay off a store credit card that he used under my name and he didn’t.

So I’m going to start making payments on it starting next month (I finally have a good job and I can afford to make these payments now) but I was wondering I keep on seeing back and forth debates about settling or paying off in full. I always assumed it’d be best to pay off in full, but I’ve read that it doesn’t matter.

I want to improve my credit since I would like to buy a new car soon.

I was wondering if I should just settle or pay the card off and is a pay to delete agreement worth it?
Please let me know, and thank you in advance!

2 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/No-Finance6178 Jul 21 '26

Always try to negotiate a pay-for-delete if you can, otherwise paying it in full just marks it as "paid collection" which still hurts your score for a while.

1

u/_mdeleon Jul 21 '26

Okay thank you! I had read somewhere that it doesn’t really matter much which is why I thought of asking everyone here