[awslattery]

In my experience, I've been able to settle for less than full balanced owed (the collection agencies buy them by the bundle for pennies on the dollar), and all negative tradelines removed (original charge off and collection account) under new (2018ish) publicly listed policies of doing so.

This approach is mainly used by third-party debt buyers, like Encore/Midland/Cavalry. And doesn't apply to public judgments, if they decide to pursue that route. Thankfully, I have managed to avoid that in my credit recovery journey.

First-party (original creditor) will laugh or tell you it isn't possible if you ask for a PFD settlement, but there are documented instances of it happening as early as 2010 in my research for "making the case" before these policies started to become more widespread.