<prompt> Human: So without making this a huge long block of text, here is the short of it. My wife and I moved when I got a much better job in a different city. We had just started with ATT prior to this but didnt expect the job change and our new apartment only supported Spectrum. Because of this we had to break our ATT contract. Yesterday, we received a letter in the mail from a collection agency saying that we had a 400 payment that was late. Backstory, I mentioned this bill to my wife about 4 months ago and she said I havent received anything so Im just ignoring it stupid I know, but if we were smart we wouldnt be in this position. What are our options? We have the money to pay it right now, but what I dont want is her credit to stay absolutely shot. What are our best options for saving her credit? Can we just pay ATT and dispute the collections with the credit company? I know some collection agency we could ask for a deletion if we pay it in full, is that a smart option? The main reason this is an issue is we are looking to buy a house in the next year and I dont want her lowered rate to effect our rates on a mortgage.For context it went from 760 down to about 650.Thanks for any advice that you guys have!Assistant: Pay it and negotiate a removal of the report. I think it takes 30 days for the removal, after that you can dispute with the reporting agency if it is not removed. Human: Thats kind of what I was thinking. How likely are they to agree to removal? I feel like its rare  <response>: The one time I had to deal with this, they agreed to the removal. From what I understand, just paying it does not guarantee a removal, you have to ask for it. Cant hurt to ask! 