The collection agency rep told me to stop paying and my score jumped 40 points

I had this old medical bill from Reno that kept showing up as a collection, so I was making small payments every month. The rep finally said those payments were actually hurting me because they refreshed the account date. I stopped, waited about 60 days, and my FICO went from 612 to 652. Anyone else get told the opposite by a bank or credit card company?

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parkerkim21d ago

Man that is wild... I had a similar thing with an old cable bill. The rep at the collection place told me the same thing, that my payments were just keeping it alive. I stopped and my score went up like 25 points after a couple months. It feels backwards cause everything else in life tells you to keep paying, but these old debts just sit there like a zombie. Really glad you figured it out though, that jump is huge. Feels good to finally see some green after all that stress.