Collection account removal

[Jack25]

Last month my my credit score went from 495 to 539 on my
Equifax report. Then february came around and one of my
installment accounts went into collections and brought my
score back down to 495. What is a good negotiation tactic
to remove or pay this account to boost my score back up?
and I just paid off another installment loan in full today. Will
this help??

[Trish]

If there is any way to get the installment acct out of collections, try that. Then the CA cannot report the acct.
Call up the OC and see if the acct was just assigned or if it was actually sold.
If it was only assigned, then the OC has the power to pull the acct back from the CA and work directly with you.

Paying off the other acct should also help bring your score up as well since the percentage of utilization will be lower.