Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

If you have negative marks from an unsettled account on your credit report that you're not responsible for, you can contest it and get it taken off.
If you are responsible for it, you can wait the seven years, but be very careful, because if there's any activity on the account within those seven years, the timer will restart from the date of new activity, and you'll either want to pay it off, or wait another seven.

Paying the account off is considered activity, and you'll still have the negative marks for 7 years. So, I'd just leave it alone if you're gonna wait.

Also, beware of debt collectors tricking you. Sometimes they'll call and try to get you to admit the debt is yours, and get you to infer that you're planning on paying it off. On that basis, they can update the account and run you past the seven years, starting a whole new statute of limitations in the process (which they can then sue you for the debt).

I had a credit card that went into collections like 9 years ago, and the info is now off my report, but the collectors keep selling the account to other collectors, and I still get calls to this day. They even send me letters saying they'll settle the debt for 99 dollars (was originally like 3,000), but that would be a dumb move because the statute of limitations is wayyy over, so they can't sue, and paying would put it right back on my credit report if they sent the account status to the reporting agency. So... best move for me is just ignore them.

Any time my phone shows an 800 number, I know it's them. lol.