Can I Pay To Remove Derogatory Marks On My Credit Report?

derogatory marks on my credit couple holding HELP sign

Also, will using pay for delete remove derogatory marks on my credit work?

Many things demand your attention. Yet amid juggling matters like family time, health and fitness, and your career, it’s crucial you keep tabs on another often neglected area of your life – your credit.

Whether you want to get insurance coverage, apply for a credit card, an auto loan, or a mortgage, the state of your credit will come into play. A bad credit score can hurt you in more ways than one.

When you have bad credit scores, you may end up paying higher security deposits or down payments for utility services and a higher interest rate to borrow. You may even end up stuck with extremely high insurance premiums.

Whether you forgot to pay your debts on time or experienced a challenging financial situation, derogatory marks can appear on your credit report. They can hurt your credit score – pretty severely.

Removing Derogatory Marks on My Credit - Here’s Where Thing’s Start Looking Ugly!

When you run into trouble keeping up with debts on your credit accounts, all kinds of ugly things start to happen. Suppose you’ve ever been in that situation. In that case, you know that as soon as the clock runs out – usually after you’re 180 days or so late – the term derogatory appears on your credit report, and you start getting calls, emails, and letters from the creditor.

You may be wondering in these scenarios: “how do I remove derogatory marks on my credit?” Don’t worry; you’re not alone.

Almost everyone who has derogatory marks on their credit report asks the same question and scouring the internet looking for strategies to remove derogatory marks and improve their credit scores. Pay-for-delete is one such strategy.

What Is Pay-For-Delete?

The tactic of pay-for-delete can be a godsend when you’re looking to settle a collection account to add positive incidents to your credit report. But what is it?

Essentially, pay-for-delete is when you contact your creditor or collection agency with an offer to pay a certain amount of the total debt or all the outstanding balance.

In exchange, your creditor deletes the collection entry from your credit report. Sounds pretty tempting, right? While a pay-for-delete sounds nice, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Stick around to learn more.

How Does It Work?

Debt settlement is an excellent solution for people asking: “how do I remove derogatory marks on my credit report?”

When the agreed to debt settlement is accepted, your creditor or the debt collector will update the three major credit bureaus as a $0 balance account with a notation like:

Settled in full
Paid less than the total balance

Yes, getting back on track and paying your credit accounts helps. Still, derogatory marks/negative items on your report remain for seven years and ten years for severe derogatory marks.

Enter. The Pay-For-Delete Tactic

When you request a pay-for-delete, you offer to pay a certain percentage of 100% if the debt collector agrees to remove the account from your credit report entirely.

The idea behind pay-for-delete is to help improve your credit score faster without derogatory marks hanging over your head for 7 or 10 years.

Is It Possible?

On paper, yes. Pay-for-delete used to be a tactic that creditors and settlement agencies would use to get consumers to settle their credit accounts. They would offer to delete the collection account if you agreed to pay a certain amount or the entire balance.

However, as a rule of thumb, you should not accept this “offer.”

Collection companies and creditors are notorious for promising to remove negative accounts to get you to make the payment.

Making A Pay-For-Delete Offer.

women making an offer to remove derogatory credit marks

To make a pay-for-delete offer, you’ll have to send a letter to the creditor or collection company.

The letter should include:

Your info (name, address, phone number, email)
Your collection company or creditor’s name and address
The name and account number of the credit account you are referencing
A written statement highlighting the amount you agree to pay and your expectations concerning the creditor deleting negative information

But before you start drafting a pay-for-delete letter, there’s one thing you need to know: there are no guarantees! But while there are no guarantees, it’s worth a try.

Is Pay-For-Delete Legal? Can I Remove Derogatory Marks On My Credit File?

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act – the section that governs credit reporting guidelines and laws – credit bureaus are required to create accurate credit reports. You have a right to dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.

Technically, pay-for-deletion isn’t prohibited, and asking your original creditor or collection agency for pay-for-delete is entirely legal. However, it is not an improve-your-bad-credit-overnight solution.

Besides, even if your offer is accepted and you get it in writing, the creditor may still fail to follow through. Your letter may have very little legal weight since the FCRA dictates that collection agencies and creditors report accurate information.

That means you won’t have legal recourse later (because you legally incurred derogatory marks on your credit report) if the damaging information reappears.

<<Note>> This is a very grey area. If you decide to take this route, keep in mind that you might end up paying your balance only to lose the benefit of pay-for-delete later. And there’s nothing you can do about it!

Bureaus didn’t remove any Derogatory Marks On My Credit Account.

So, you’ve written a pay-for-delete letter to your creditor, and they reply saying they accept your offer, and it’s signed and looks convincingly “official” and “legal.” You clear the balance according to the agreement, and you check your credit report a few months later, but guess what? The account and the negative information, as agreed, were not removed!

Now what?

Stop asking: “how do I remove derogatory marks on my credit.” Get rid of negative information on your credit report and raise your credit score with expert credit repair services.

Because of the uncertainty of pay-for delete, you may be better off pursuing other options, such as hiring a credit repair company.

A credit repair agency will do all the heavy lifting for you, including contacting your creditor and disputing errors contained in your credit report.

They will dispute incorrect information as many times as possible. If the creditor fails to respond or validate it on time, the credit bureau must remove that account from your credit report by law.

Pay-for-delete can be an effective tactic for people asking, “how can I remove derogatory marks on my credit report,” but it’s worth exploring alternatives.