Comment from bdancer2
Time July 28, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Your credit report will show most of your outstanding debts. Of course, if the creditor didn’t report the debt to the credit bureau, the debt won’t show.
Work on negotiating settlements on your old debt, starting with the newest and work back to the oldest. The older the debt, the less impact on your score. You may want to just let anything close to the 7 year mark, just age off your report.
General rule of thumb: if the debt is over 3 years old, offer 25%; 2 or 3 years old, offer 50%; less than 2, offer 75%. Lump sum gets the best deal. Payment plans have to be very short term.
Get any settlement agreement in writing and keep it, along with your payment proof, forever. Do not give the collector direct access to your bank account.
Also, paying off old debt will NOT improve your score. However, creditors look at your whole credit report. Paid old debt always looks better than unpaid.