Does Pay-for-Delete Really Improve Pennsylvania Credit Scores?

Debt collection agencies such as Midland Funding often offer consumers in Pennsylvania and other states pay-for-delete deals. In exchange for debt payment, these debt collectors remove collection items from credit reports. Of course, in theory, this seems like a good arrangement for indebted Pennsylvania consumers. After all, why pay off a debt in debt collections if doing so won’t improve your credit score? Yet, the truth is that pay-for-delete deals don’t always improve credit scores. When a debt collector deletes an item from your credit report(s), it might give your credit score a boost. However, this depends on two important factors. First, will the original creditor also remove their negative item on your credit report(s)? Then, you have to consider whether or not you have other delinquencies.

Why Pennsylvania Consumers Must Consider Original Creditors in Pay-for-Delete Deals

In order for Pennsylvania consumers to reap the full benefits of pay-for-delete deals, they must convince their original creditors to delete negative credit report items too. This, unfortunately, is something that most are unlikely to do. Why? There’s no incentive for these creditors to remove charged-off accounts from credit reports. They’ve already taken losses when the accounts went unpaid, and at this point, only the debt collection agencies benefit.

Luckily, there is a scenario in which Pennsylvania debtors see credit score jumps after pay-for-delete deals, even if the original creditors won’t remove negative items. In this scenario, the charged off account is at least two years old. Here, if the collection item is just a few months old, and these are the only negative items, having the collection item deleted helps a lot. This is because, after the debt collector deletes the collection item, the only negative mark remaining is at least two years old. Therefore, a consumer in Pennsylvania in this situation would likely see their credit score improve.

If, on the other, in this exact same scenario, if a consumer in Pennsylvania has just one more (unrelated) six-month-old debt collection item, they won’t benefit from the pay-for-delete. Why? Even with one collection item gone, their most recent negative credit report item is still fairly recent. So, here, their credit score likely goes unchanged.

This is a complicated issue to say the least. Also, some Pennsylvania consumers may choose to pay off debt collectors even if doing so won’t help their credit scores. Why? Most lenders look more favorably upon “paid” debt in collections versus “unpaid” debt in collections. Therefore, paying charged-off balances might make sense if you’re looking to finance a home in the near future.

Other Ways for Pennsylvania Consumers with Debt in Debt Collections to Improve their Damaged Credit Scores

Most negative items fall off Pennsylvania credit reports within seven to ten years. However, you can take actions to improve your credit score during this time. For example, you should get current with your bills, and pay everything on time. You should also use credit responsibly and keep your credit card balances low.

Finally, in order to protect their improving credit scores, Pennsylvania consumers should regularly check their credit reports. This is necessary for three reasons. First, because most negative credit report items fall off after a certain amount of time, you should keep tabs on them to ensure that they disappear on time. Next, monitoring your credit reports allows you to catch signs of identity theft, such as fraudulent items or bogus transactions. Then, finally, checking your credit reports enables you to find and report credit score damaging errors caused by creditors and the credit bureaus.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) entitles you to a free annual copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus. Just visit www.annualcreditreport.com once every 12 months, and request credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.

Then, while looking over your credit reports, you spot signs of identity theft, file a police report immediately, then contact Credit Repair Lawyers of America in Pennsylvania. If you find errors and mistakes on one, two, or all three credit reports, call our firm right away. The credit pros at our firm can tackle any credit issue and connect you with an experienced credit attorney. Our team will make sure that you get clean credit reports, and all of our client services are absolutely FREE.

The Free and Legal way to Get Better Credit in Pennsylvania

Don’t let errors or identity theft damage on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? The law allows us to collect our fees and costs from the defendants in any successful action.  This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.

Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (856) 912-3511 or sending him a message through our contact page.

For more information about Free Credit Repair, please visit https://creditrepairlawyersam.com/pennsylvania/credit-repair/. Or, to learn more about Free Credit Repair After Identity Theft, check out https://creditrepairlawyersam.com/pennsylvania/fix-identity-theft/.