text: Let me warn you of something.\n\nIf you were to pay off this bill, and IF the creditor notifies the credit bureau, your account is changed to "paid".  However, it will still show that you had late payments, or that the account was in collections.  This is still a negative item on your report, and it will still hurt your score.\n\nDoes it make sense to pay off your bill and still have bad credit?\n\nThe problem is that the only way you can get a negative item removed is for the creditor to tell them to remove it.  There is no other way (except to go through the dispute process and hope the creditor does not respond to the investigation). \n\nWhat I advise people to do is negotiate with the creditor.  Tell them that in exchange for paying off the bill, they must agree IN WRITING to remove all negative information from your credit report.  \n\nSee the link below for more info.