A toughie: Debt settlement or bankruptcy for college student.

It is good that you have realized your mistake and want to rectify it. The best option is to pay off the judgment. Once you have paid off the judgment, the account status will be updated as "Paid Judgment". You future employers will appreciate the fact that you have paid off the judgments.

As for the other charged off accounts, it will be better to settle them. I would not advise you to file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a costly and complex process. It will lower your credit score by 200-250 points. Debt settlement may lower your score by around 125 points (it varies from person to person).

Once the debts are settled, try to add positive information on your credit report. Don't incur new debts. You can take out a secured card.
All the best for your career!!!

I don't believe bankruptcy is a good option for you, due to the fact that your debt isn't extremely high. It is my opinion that you can settle all of your debt for less than $3,500 - including the judgments.

Good luck!

I agree with Marie. Pay the judgments, sometimes you can even get those settled if you can pay a lump sum. Anyone else who's hounding you, settle. If they haven't contacted you, I'd wait for them to contact you before settling. When you do settle the non-judgment accounts, it's always worth a shot to ask for a pay for delete. It doesn't happen often but, again, it's worth a shot.

Rather than settling and have my (Already low) credit score lower so many point, should I pay full amount of collection amount? and once I pay whether full or settle, is this going to make the credit history of the account stay for 7 years as of date of payment?

Thank you for your help!

A paid collection is negative no matter which way you look at it....so you might as well pay as little as possible. Paying collection accounts will not raise your credit score.

It will be better if you can pay off the full collection amount mate. Your account status will be updated as "Paid in Full" on your credit report. But the item will still appear on your credit report for 7 years.

Quote:

Paying or not paying debt is not a FICO credit scoring issue. FICO scores derogs posted along the way, and does not care if a debt is unpaid, settled for less than the full amount, or settled for the full amount.

There is no Current Status code for an account that identifies how it was paid. Any debt that you settle with the creditor is considered "paid,' and that is its status. Paid. So the proper term is settled = paid, as far as the account status is concerned. Creditors dont report the amount you paid to settle with them to a CRA.
However, the CRA reporting codes do provide for an additional, separate field called "Special Comments." If a debt is settled for less than the full amount, they can, if they choose, add a special comment that simply identifies that the settlement was for less than the full amount. Adding that special comment is optional on their part. Again, it is still legally settled, and again, does not affect your FICO scoring.

What such a comment does is caste a possible dispersion on the consumer if and when a potential creditor does a manual review of your credit report. Not paying the full debt owed is a negative factor that might affect their lending decisions.
When the derogatory item of information has passed its credit report exclusion date, which for charge-offs is 7 years plus 180-days from the DOFD on the OC account, it will no longer be available for review to those making a standard request for your CR. So you can say it is gone. But really, it is not. It remains in your credit file, and can, under the exemption provision of FCRA 605(b), still be requested to be included in your CR if the person requesting it can show that their purpose is for one of the exempted purposes listed in section 605(b). The three purposes entitling a party to get a CR that includes items that have passed their section 605(a) "drop off" dates are applications for credit or insurance having a principal balance of $150,000 or more, or investigations for employment purposes where the job has an annual salary of $75,000 or more. The person requesting such an expanded CR must assert on of those provisions in order to see otherwise excluded adverse items.

If your SOL has expired, and the standard 605(a) CR exclusion date has expired, and you dont anticipate a credit or insurance transaction at or above those limits, or that a potential employer may ask for your full CR, then it is kinda safe if you dont pay.

Then it all kinda boils down to a moral issue, which of course is only a personal matter.

It is not all just about credit scoring.
There is tremendous logic to paying in full. It avoids entry of a "paid for less" special comment in your CR.
To deride the logic of paying in full shows a fixation only on the credit scoring aspect of the issue, and shows a disregard for the inherent logic that a potential creditor will look less favorably on the fact that a consumer has not paid all the prior debt they accrued than seeing that they eventually met their total obligation.