Can you have unpaid collections on your credit report

Great news, yes you can have unpaid collections on your credit report when closing on a refinance or purchase of a new home.   The guidelines changed early this year where they will allow you to keep collections open and unpaid during a purchase or refinance of a home loan.  Judgements still have to be paid unless you can prove that you have made payment arrangements and have been paying on it for 12 months or more.   The underwriter will want some proof that you have paid on time and on a monthly basis.  Make sure you pay with a check or money order and keep a copy of everything to do with the Judgement.   Status of Limitations in Michigan is 6 years for collections and 10 years for judgements.    This goes from the date of last activity.  If your collections or judgements are older then this you can request that they be removed from your credit report.  Call or email if you would like help with this or would like more information about collections and judgements.  Paying off a collection might actually help your score but it could also hurt you.   If your collection hasn’t been reporting on a monthly basis than it is no longer hurting you, paying it off may update the date causing you to have a new update bad mark on your credit report.   On the other hand if you have a collections that is reporting every month then it is best to pay for deletion if possible but paying to get it to stop reporting will also help.  Please call with an comments or questions on this subject.