negative items on credit report

Any negative item will remain in your credit report for the next 7 years. However, if you wish, you can write a goodwill letter to your creditor or collection agency and request them to remove negative listings from your credit report purely out of goodwill as you've already paid off those accounts.

Hi!
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Do you have the documents proving that you have paid off the account? If you don't have the documents, then it would be very difficult for you to prove that. Another thing, most negative items remain on credit reports for around 7 years. They won't be deleted before that. However, the updated account status will be reported on your credit report.

The 5 items is only supposed to be deleted from your credit report if your creditors had made a written promise to delete them after the accounts have been repaid.

THe advise above is sound. After some time I am finally able to pay off all of my bad debt. I am calling each drecitor and negotiating settlements that include taking the negative off of my credit report entirely. Some of my debt is old, over 5 years. As an example, I had a Cingular debt of $1500, plus $1000 in interest. I negotiated a settlement of $400 PLUS removal of the debt from my credit report. KEY I did NOT pay this debt until they sent me a signed document stating they would remove this from my credit. For those that refuse, mostly the big dogs like(Target, Texaco, the big corps, not much you can do. However, for doc bills and other smaller creditors I am calling them directly to see if they will get involved. It does not work all the time but, to me, is well worth the effort.

As has been said, FICO scoring is not about paying debt. It is about derogs and delinquencies that you incur along the road. Paying debt (absent a PFD agreement from the creditor) does not result in any CR removal, or FICO score improvement.
Monthly delinuencies remain for 7 years from the date of each individual delinquency. Each have their own credit report drop off date. FCRA 605(a)(5).
Charge-offs and collections remain until after 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD on the OC account. FCRA 605(a)(4) as modified by FCRA 605(c).

Unfortunately, "rcc" and "Lian" are correct. Those negatives will remain on your credit report. And as has been mentioned, it would have been better to have tried to negotiate a pay-to-delete arrangement at the time of payoff instead of paying first then wondering. Then again, that's not blame towards you. Many people, including myself, have/had no clue of such things until we learn by doing or hear from others.

I also was in your position about 3 years ago when I started combing forums such as this one to figure out how to go about working on my credit report and score over time. Oh, and I too was naive at first to think that if I settled with them or paid it off, they would reward my newfound responsibility by being nice to me and removing my delinquent notations on my report. Doesn't work that way.

All they want is your $$. They could care less how it affects you afterward. Plus, not all of them will even negotiate a pay-to-delete. Sometimes, you're stuck with no choice but to suck it up and pay it off for your own well-being and satisfaction.

I think another move you can make is to slowly start finding ways to create positive accounts on your history to offset those 11 negative accounts (while you're waiting for the 5 to drop off).

First, if you've got more accounts you can negotiate payoffs with, do it, but ONLY negotiate the agreed amount and then do NOT send the money until they sign an agreement to remove the negative notation. Once you have that, then send them something trackable, like a money-order, etc., sent delivery and signature confirmation so there are no issues. If they agree to delete upon payment, take it, then check your report within 30-60 days to see if it's gone. Most likely, it will be as agreed.

Second, for those that don't want to do this service for you, you will have to decide what to do next. One thing you could do, rather than pay off in full, is find out if they'll rehab your account by your making a successful number of on-time payments in a row. They may change the notation on your account in such a way as to cause it to go positive. Then, just pay it down regularly as you can, always on-time, and that will help.

Third, slowly start building some positive accounts. If you have to, try a secured card (if you can't get one unsecured). It's an easy way to get a new credit account and start building positive history. You may also want to check smaller community banks or credit unions, as they may be more flexible than the big box banks (and with less fees and issues). I would wait a few months, then look around for another tradeline that you can get on, maybe even if it is just online somewhere like amazon or enchantedattire.com or through other .com stores offering some instant credit to get you going. But go slow, as each application will affect your score a little each time.

I'm had 3 positives and 11 negatives at one point myself. I'm now up to 6 positive and down to 5 negatives (most of the negs involve school loan stuff that is about to resolve also). And, I'm back up to a 696! So you can do it yourself, if you take your time and be strategic. Again, with the pay-to-delete negotiations, you never know what you can get out of them if you don't ask. You might even get a reduced payoff amount in the process!