In late 2003 or early 2004, I paid off/ Settled paid off delinquent Credit Cards?

Credit items remain on your credit report for a maximum of 7 years.

However, if you want to have them deleted immediately, there is a way.

Once a year you may ask for a free copy of the report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

After that, you send each a letter disputing the information which you desire to remove. If the creditor does not respond in 30 days verifying that their information is correct, the bureau, by law must remove it.

After 5 years, the bank does not want to waste any more time on your account, so it will most likely ignore the letter from the Credit Bureau.

They will send you an updated copy to prove they have complied with the law.

I did thid several years ago, and had a 700 FICO score the next week.

New York is the only state that has a statute that allows a "paid" negative to report for only 5 years. (paid or not, the reporting time period would still start on the same date)

If you live in NY then send the consumer reporting agencies a dispute as obsolete by NY law.

If you live in a different state than NY, your best option would be to look over your reports for any incorrect information the negatives are reporting. ie incorrect dollar amount, past due, etc.

If there are inaccuracies then dispute them. If you paid those accounts off back in '03 or '04 then whoever you paid may not bother to verify your dispute with the consumer reporting agencies.

They can report those delinquencies for 7 years. By now they have lost most of their negative impact on your credit history.

For future reference, never pay anything once it hits a collection agency and they insert a negative tradeline into your report. It doesn't help your credit score at all. It's as bad as flushing money.