You Paid Debt but Didn’t Erase It
Paying off old debt can actually lower your credit score. This happens if the collection updates to “paid” with a date of today on your credit report and the last active report dates on the collection are two years old, according to Thomas.
“It’s better to try to pay the collection and negotiate with the debt collection agency to have it removed versus updating the status,” he said. “Speak with a credit expert or a lender to see what should and should not be paid.”
