# Negotiating with Creditors--Remove a negative from a credit report
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 12, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577 "2009-06-12T18:24:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/1 "2009-06-12T18:24:20Z")
I am getting my financial house in order and I notice that I have a couple of collection accounts from a few years ago.
My question is fairly simple: When I negotiate with these companies, can I ask that they stop reporting the negative information so that it disappears from the report? Is that something they can/will do? Any experiences will be appreciated…
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### Author:  [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/2 "2009-06-12T20:53:08Z")
With the standard disclaimer that IAAL but am not your lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice, I’d contact the creditor and say, “I propose paying you $X in full payment of your claim on account no. abc, and within 10 business days of your receipt of $X you will report to the credit reporting agencies that you have received payment in full on that account.” I’d put that offer in writing and send it certified mail to them.
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### Author:  [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/3 "2009-06-12T21:14:00Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#):
>
> With the standard disclaimer that IAAL but am not your lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice, I’d contact the creditor and say, “I propose paying you $X in full payment of your claim on account no. abc, and within 10 business days of your receipt of $X you will report to the credit reporting agencies that you have received payment in full on that account.” I’d put that offer in writing and send it certified mail to them.
Paid in full is very different from paying for an actual deletion. A paid collections will still show up as having been in collections. Deleting removes it entirely.
Yes, you can do this. Many collectors will claim it is impossible, or that they won’t do so based on policy. Basically they’re deleting it as if it was proven not to be a correct account in exchange for money.
Generally what you do is take a creditor who is already willing to take some portion of the debt and get it in writing that you are paying the full debt in exchange for having the debt removed entirely from credit (making sure to note that it is not to be marked as a paid collections, but removed entirely). I’d head over to the Credit Info Center forums, they have lots of people who are experts at doing just this.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/4 "2009-06-12T22:30:52Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#):
>
> Paid in full is very different from paying for an actual deletion. A paid collections will still show up as having been in collections. Deleting removes it entirely.
Kinda makes you wonder about the ethics of this. Is it proper to say, in effect, that the debt was never owed and never in collections, when in fact this isn’t true?
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/5 "2009-06-12T23:49:17Z")
It is illegal for a creditor to barter your derogatory credit information for payments.
In other words, they are not to send in updates requesting accounts or pieces of derogatory information be removed unless they are in fact errors.
They do it though.
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/6 "2009-06-13T00:08:20Z")
> [@Xema](#):
>
> Kinda makes you wonder about the ethics of this. Is it proper to say, in effect, that the debt was never owed and never in collections, when in fact this isn’t true?
is is proper for an account that you owed money on and did pay to hurt you as much as one not paid?
> [@Philster](#):
>
> It is illegal for a creditor to barter your derogatory credit information for payments.
>
> In other words, they are not to send in updates requesting accounts or pieces of derogatory information be removed unless they are in fact errors.
>
> They do it though.
Nope Philster it’s not illegal as it’s not against the law. The FTC says that anything reported to a credit reporting agency report must me accurate and truthful but there is no law that they must report.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/7 "2009-06-13T00:24:50Z")
I had the impression that with the exception of bankruptcies, anything on your credit report automatically “drops off” after seven years of the last action or payment or whatever taken on your account. To me, that has two implications: (1) In two or three years the issue will take care of itself anyway, and (2) by offering to pay now, you risk re-setting the seven year clock again.
Or am I completely off base on this?
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### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/8 "2009-06-13T00:43:47Z")
> [@Koxinga](#):
>
> I had the impression that with the exception of bankruptcies, anything on your credit report automatically “drops off” after seven years of the last action or payment or whatever taken on your account. To me, that has two implications: (1) In two or three years the issue will take care of itself anyway, and (2) by offering to pay now, you risk re-setting the seven year clock again.
>
> Or am I completely off base on this?
Yep. I think certain types of accounts can be reported longer but that’s generally correct. By paying them off now, there’s a good chance the negative information will be on his report for 7 more years. Moral implications aside, if they’ve been on there for a few years, his credit may be better off if he doesn’t pay.
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### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/9 "2009-06-13T00:51:36Z")
> [@Fubaya](#):
>
> Yep. I think certain types of accounts can be reported longer but that’s generally correct. By paying them off now, there’s a good chance the negative information will be on his report for 7 more years. Moral implications aside, if they’ve been on there for a few years, his credit may be better off if he doesn’t pay.
(I missed the edit window..)
Or maybe not. I had a collection agency contact me over a debt that wasn’t mine and researched it and could have sworn that was true, but [this](http://www.carreonandassociates.com/articles/reportingtime.htm) site says otherwise. I’ll bow out and let someone more knowledgeable take a crack.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/10 "2009-06-13T01:00:19Z")
> [@MannyL](#):
>
> is is proper for an account that you owed money on and did pay to hurt you as much as one not paid?
I’d imagine that most would-be future creditors would react differently to “He owed this and never paid it” than they would to “He owed this and let it go a while, but then paid it.”
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/11 "2009-06-13T01:03:46Z")
> [@Xema](#):
>
> I’d imagine that most would-be future creditors would react differently to “He owed this and never paid it” than they would to “He owed this and let it go a while, but then paid it.”
I doubt it. Isn’t everything scored by computer these days? I imagine human loan officers or whoever don’t have much leeway to gainsay the scoring program.
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/12 "2009-06-13T01:32:03Z")
> [@MannyL](#):
>
> is is proper for an account that you owed money on and did pay to hurt you as much as one not paid?
>
> Nope Philster it’s not illegal as it’s not against the law. The FTC says that anything reported to a credit reporting agency report must me accurate and truthful but there is no law that they must report.
Why don’t you mull over your last point for another five seconds? Especially the 'truthful" and “accurate” parts.
If you are LATE, and you pay the creditor under the pretense that the creditor remove the late (derog), and the creditor removes it…that would be… DRUM ROLL PLEASE…
INNACURATE!
A lie.
A falsehood.
Illegal!
Helllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/13 "2009-06-13T01:47:31Z")
If you have a ding against your credit, it’s there, it’s too late. But it gives you leverage. You can call up your potential creditor and say “I’ll pay but you have to agree in writing to remove the information, against my credit report.” Make sure you have checked all three and they agree to remove it on ALL the credit reports.
Most creditors will do this, simply 'cause they don’t want revenge, they want their money. And if the ding is bad enough, you’ve already lost the right to credit with them anyway. So there’s nothing to gain by being angry with you.
Remember though a lot of creditors sell their bad debts. Major banks which issue credit cards, will try to collect for six months and then they sell your bad debt. So if you pay the credit card bank, it’s no longer their decision.
They’ve reported you as bad, and sold the debt. The collection agencies don’t have the power to remove the bad entries as they didn’t put them their in the first place.
In that case it’s best to file a dispute and challange the ding against your report. The creditor has to PROVE his charge. That’s usually very easy for them, but sometimes they won’t bother to respond or when the banks merge data gets lost.
Various lenders look at different things. A lender for a mortages is gonna look harder than one for a $200 limit credit card. It depends what the lender uses to determain your eligibility. Most lenders understand if you owe money to a hospital and didn’t pay it. But suppose you owe a hospital $10,000 then charge it to your Visa then default. OK so now it says you owe VISA money not the hospital. What woud you think if you saw this?
So yes you can negotiate effectively and it’s not hard, but be prepared to bluff, be prepared to walk away and you may have to try the offer several times. But don’t pay unless you get the agreement in writing to remove entries from ALL your credit reports.
Its like the old saying “When you owe $1,000 and can’t pay you got troubles, when you owe $100,000 and can’t pay your CREDITOR has problems.”
A company doesn’t care about you, they care about getting their money or as much of it as they can.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/14 "2009-06-13T03:00:20Z")
> [@Koxinga](#):
>
> I doubt it. Isn’t everything scored by computer these days?
Surely it would a strange kind of scoring program that treated late debts you paid the same as debts never paid.
FWIW, I know a guy who when young and foolish had a bunch of very overdue debts. Most he finally paid off, but a couple remained when he, now working a good job, applied for a mortgage. He was able to qualify, but only after settling the outstanding debts (one was over 3k for skipping out of an apartment lease).
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/15 "2009-06-13T05:35:24Z")
> [@Philster](#):
>
> Why don’t you mull over your last point for another five seconds? Especially the 'truthful" and “accurate” parts.
>
> If you are LATE, and you pay the creditor under the pretense that the creditor remove the late (derog), and the creditor removes it…that would be… DRUM ROLL PLEASE…
>
> INNACURATE!
> A lie.
>
> A falsehood.
>
> Illegal!
>
> Helllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
You’re assuming that an omission (which is what you are negotiating for) is the same as a falsehood. I find this unlikely in the legal system, as, in criminal cases, you have to swear to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Thus, they have to specify that you cannot leave out information, even if you are telling the truth.
It’s the same thing as asking your friends not to tell a secret, even if they’ve already told some people. As long as they don’t actually go and tell people that the secret was untrue, they are not lying.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/16 "2009-06-13T14:46:16Z")
> [@Koxinga](#):
>
> (2) by offering to pay now, you risk re-setting the seven year clock again.
Thanks for all of the replies. Is this correct? I was under the belief that 7 years was 7 years. You are saying that if I pay it off now, then the 7 years starts all over again?
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/17 "2009-06-13T15:50:09Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> You’re assuming that an omission (which is what you are negotiating for) is the same as a falsehood. I find this unlikely in the legal system, as, in criminal cases, you have to swear to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Thus, they have to specify that you cannot leave out information, even if you are telling the truth.
>
> It’s the same thing as asking your friends not to tell a secret, even if they’ve already told some people. As long as they don’t actually go and tell people that the secret was untrue, they are not lying.
Deliberate omissions are inaccuracies.
Data furnishers are liable for the information they report, and not reporting derog is a willful violation: negligence.
Removing it? Even worse.
This is credit reporting, so please spare us the childish analogies about secrets. It degrades your argument.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/18 "2009-06-17T16:20:52Z")
I’ll use my one bump again to ask: If I pay to this creditor, will it start my 7 years all over again?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/19 "2009-06-17T16:56:06Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> I’ll use my one bump again to ask: If I pay to this creditor, will it start my 7 years all over again?
In theory- no. In actual practice, it often does, and you have to fight like hell to fix it.
[http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/WhenPayingBillsCanHurtYourCredit.aspx](http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/WhenPayingBillsCanHurtYourCredit.aspx)
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### Author:  [@Jorge\_Burrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge_Burrito)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/negotiating-with-creditors-remove-a-negative-from-a-credit-report/499577/20 "2009-06-17T21:34:18Z")
You are getting ahead of yourself here. The first step is to send certified letter to the collection agencies demanding validation of the debt. If these debts are indeed several years old they are extremely unlikely to be able to do this, if they bother to take the time to even try to do it in the first place. If they are unable to validate the debt then by law they must remove any derogatory marks from your credit report, consider the debt paid, and have no further contact with you.
In the chance they are able to validate the debt, yes you can absolutely state as a condition of payment that they remove the derogatory. Collections companies purchased your debt for pennies on the dollar and despite how hard they sound on the phone, will be very willing to settle to any demands you have if you are willing to pay back even a small portion of the debt. Be absolutely sure you get your final agreement in writing.
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