From the viewpoint of repairing your credit score, it’s better to pay off a collection sooner rather than later, assuming you can afford to do so. However, a paid collection will only help your credit score if the collector agrees to remove the item from your credit report. Short of that, paying off a collection may have no effect on your credit score. As explained above, you may have bargaining leverage with a debt collection agency. This manifests when you submit a pay for delete letter that offers to pay the debt in return for removing the collection item from your credit report. Your offer may be for the full amount owed, but you can request a partial write-down of the balance due. For example, suppose you had a $10,000 credit card balance and were unable to make payments. Eventually, the card issuer wrote off your account and sold it to a debt collection agency for 20 cents on the dollar. The issuer collected $2,000, which means the collection agency must collect at least that much just to break even. The fact that your original debt was $10,000 may be less important to the collector than to the credit card issuer. If the collector were to collect, say, $4,000 on the old debt, it would rack up a gross profit of 100%. Therefore, the collector may be willing to accept a pay to delete deal.