 TITLE: Can Paying off Collections Raise Your Credit Score? CONTENT: Will My Credit Improve if I Pay My Collection Account?\n------------------------------------------------------\nNewer credit scoring models ignore collections that have a zero balance. This is true for both the most recent version of FICO®'s credit score, FICO® 9, and the two newest versions of the VantageScore® credit score, 3.0 and 4.0.\nWhen you pay or settle a collection and it is updated to reflect the zero balance on your credit reports, your FICO® 9 and VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0 scores may improve. However, because older scoring models do not ignore paid collections, scores generated by these older models will not improve.\nThis is important because some lenders, especially mortgage lenders, use older versions of the credit scoring models. This means despite it being a good idea to pay or settle your collections, a higher credit score may not be the result. If you do choose to pay or settle your collections, it is a good idea to see how it impacts your credit scores. You can check your FICO® Score from Experian for free.\nKeep in mind that the FICO® Score currently available from Experian is the FICO® 8 version, which does not ignore paid collections. This is a good measuring stick because if you've got a solid FICO® 8 Score even after paying your collections, it's likely that your FICO® 9 and VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0 credit scores will be equally strong, or even better. END