6 years from when it was originally posted in 2010.
As part of your agreement to pay this off get a letter from them stating paid in full and signed by someone in authority.
That way you will have something to show regardless what report says.

Thanks for the response TJ.

Whatever they mark on the file,whether it be "paid" or "paid in full" doesn't matter to me. The potential employer told me they just want to see that it's paid, otherwise, they won't hire me.

There have been no hard or soft inquiries from the collection agency since they were originally given the file back in 2010 or so.

Now just to clarify, if I pay this tomorrow, the account will still purge 6 years after the date of last activity, 2010-11? Or is the date of last activity going to be updated to 2013-03, and then the account purged in 2019?

My credit report is great other than this one account. My current credit card has no late payments and I'm using less than 10% of the total credit limit. I learned my lesson with my first credit card, although it still haunts me to the day.

You could pay it off tomorrow but they will not make a note as paid in full....only as paid..period.
It will still remain on there for 6 years from the time it was first reported.
If you do not pay the collections can still make what are suppose to be soft inquiries which do not show on report but in actual fact appear as hard inquiries because the credit bureau bends over backwards to please their paying members.
Complaining seems to have little effect.
Your score is determined by a number of factors not just the one negative entry.

Hello,

I've spent the last few days reviewing hundreds of posts in an attempt to find an answer to my concerns, and avoid having to re-post a topic that has likely been discussed many times.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a clear answer, so here are my concerns. :)

I am attempting to repair my credit since it has been affecting my ability to get a new job. Most large companies are pulling credit reports on potential candidates and all the potential employers that had conditionally hired me, asked about the negative entries on my credit reports.

I have one credit card account with the following status:

- Bad Debt, collection account or unable to locate
- Reported: 2010-06
- Last activity: 2010-11
- Comments: Acct assigned to third party for collection. Monthly payments

That same account also appears in my credit report under "Collection Accounts".

- Date assigned: 2012-10
- Date of last payment: 2010-11

I know for a fact I haven't paid anything on this account since about 2008. However, I did make the mistake of speaking to the debt collection agency some time in 2010 in order to discuss settling the account. I never followed through on the agreement as I didn't have the financial capacity to do so.

If I chose not to pay this account, will it be purged 6 years from 2010-11(last activity) or from 2012-10(date assigned)?

Also, the debt amount in the 'Credit Information' section is reported as $3404 and the amount under 'Collection Accounts' is $4900. I assume that interest continued to accrue.

Ideally, I would like to pay the $3404 that was originally owed and have them mark "account paid in full'.

Can someone please advise on the best course of action for my situation? This is the only negative entry on my credit report and my score is 576 as a result.

I'm avoiding contacting the collection agency in fear that the last activity date will be updated to something more recent.

Thank you for all your help. It's greatly appreciated.