Med Bill Collections

Just ran my credit report for the first time. My score is low - 551. I have 4 positive items, which includes my mortgage, and 18 negatives, which is primarlily small medical bills that were sent to collections - some are really old - more than 5 years, other are fairly recent. One is over $1,000 - the rest are around $200-300. There's also a car loan gone bad in 2003 due to divorce & job loss, leading to a repo, but then the same creditor is shown as an acct in good standing because eventually they worked out a deal I could afford to get the car paid off.

I'd been out of a job, so I wasn't able to pay on the medical debts, but now that I'm working again I can start paying them until they are paid off.

Once they are paid off do they remain as a negative mark on my credit report like the car loan did - or are they removed as a negative mark once they are paid in full & shown as a paid off debt.

Thanks