Does paying off past-due accounts neutralize their negative status?
No. Paid, but once-delinquent, debts still show up as severe negatives. It’s important to note that credit reports don’t just show your current credit situation, but they also show what your credit situation has been in the past. Therefore, past delinquency, collection activity or a charged off listing does a great deal of damage to the credit score even if it was paid off. This is one of the great ironies of the credit reporting system; paying your past-due debts does little to immediately increase your credit score and may actually make the score worse.
