Hey all! First time poster, so my apologies for the lengthy post. My FICO 8 score is currently 611, and I would love to get into the 700s for the first time ever. For nearly 10 years I’ve been plagued with collections on my records due to poor financial decisions. I’ve successfully had an 8 year old collection removed from my reports so I’m looking forward to seeing how that may affect my score. However, I have two more collection accounts remaining that I would love some insight on how to handle.

Jefferson Capital Original collection: 06/2018 Removal: 06/2025 Balance: $3,103

This is the fourth or fifth collection agency that has had this account. They mailed an offer letter last week with option #1 being a lump sum payment of $1,551.70 (50% savings). It continues to say they will request the credit bureaus to delete the tradeline approximately 30 days after the payment has been posted. Should I offer $750/$1,000 for a pay to delete, or just wait it out since it’s only 12 months away?

Midland Credit Original collection: 10/2017

After becoming annoyed with collection attempts, I entered a payment plan with this company in May 2019. The payment structure is $25 every two weeks deducted from my checking account, and currently a balance of $827.95 remains. The last payment on this plan is set for October 2025, a full year after the 7-year removal period from the original collection. As it is being paid, it has not shown as a collection on my credit reports. Should I void this payment plan with Midland Credit in October and expect a successful dispute/removal if it appears on my credit report afterwards? Or being that this was a plan entered between myself and the collection agency, is it treated as new and will be a fresh set of 7 years if I void the plan?

Thanks in advance!

Is it just me, or is the site running horrendously the last day or so?