Does paying off past-due accounts offset their negative status?
No. Many people presume that if they pay off an account, the previous negative information is automatically deleted from their credit reports. What you don’t know is, once an account is late, sent to collections or charged off, the negative information is reported until the accepted amount of time is up. If you pay off an account or become current, your credit is better than if you never paid it at all, but the previous negative information remains the same.
