Flip

No, it actually hurts your credit because it would take an old account and show recent activity on it. There are other issues with paying a company like this. The first thing to always do when a new debt collector contacts you about any debt is to send them a certified letter requesting that they validate the debt. These days, this information actually gets sold, so it is entirely possible--it happens quite often in fact--that the company calling you does not even have the legal right to collect on that debt. So, if you pay them, and they arent the ones actually collecting on your debt, then you just wasted that money and the debt still isnt paid off.

Also, you said that the debt is several years old. The FCRA is a federal law that handles credit reporting. And this law says that a debt can only stay on your credit reports for 7.5 years from the date of original delinquency. So, 7.5 years from when it first became past due. It may be older than that already, so paying it in that case wouldnt affect your credit either way.