Frequent Contributor
Posts: 297
Registered: ‎06-02-2008
Should I pay off my charge-off accounts?
About 4 years ago I fell into some serious financial situations where I was unable to pay on alot of my CC's, Phone bills, Hospital Bills, and car notes.  I was also dumb and nieve at that time, and have really learned my lesson since.
Anyways all my accounts had fallen into collections/charge-offs, except for one good standing, which was a car note.  I was about 23K in bad debt meaning all my debts were/was in collections/charge-offs accounts.  The only debt that was showing any postive on my credit report was the car note that I was able to keep afloat during that rough time.  I just now paid off the car last month (yahoo), which was 8 grand.  So before that I was about 31K in debt (total).   My credit is pretty terrible I also had a repo back in 2004 as well.  I know I bought two cars at the same time, it was a dumb, stupid mistake.
Anywyas here is my situation.  I've recently started taking care of all my charge-off accounts, i've happened to pay off half of my debt.  I'm down to about 16K left to pay off.  Majority if not all of my accounts are scheduled to fall off my credit report in 3 years 2011.  Being that my credit is already damanged should I just wait until my charge-off's fall off my credit report?  Or should I pay them off?  I heard if you pay them it could hurt my credit even more, how truthful is that?  If that is the case I would consider not paying the remaining 16K and just letting it fall off in 2011.  I'm a little confused.  What would be the best solution for this?  Take in mind im in position to be able to pay off all these charge off accounts within the next two to three months.  Also keep in mind my goal to possibly get a home loan within the next year or so.
Any suggestions would be helpful.  Thank you!