Divorce in 2002 gave me bad credit. Should I settle or pay accounts?

Real Person / to me / show details / 2/9/06
I have very bad credit now after adivorce 2002. I now have the money to fix it and would like to pay them but they are all in collection agency now. They don't negociate at all. Since I have bad credit anyways with the 10,000 debt should I pay them in full or settle with a amount. I have opened a secured bank card and plan on trying to rebuild but they have written off my old stuff. Should I just settle for and pay some of the bill with them since they won't erase the wo from my credit
pls give me some advice thank you

oh I already got my crd report and disputed the items
Real Person
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Bo Majors / to Live Human / show details / Apr 8
Sounds to me like.......i would settle only with the agreement that if you pay say 30% 40% whatever it is, that they report settlement accepted and paid. After payments are complete.
I would NOT pay in full if they refuse to remove the account completely. I would concentrate on opening and maintaning new good reported credit. Make sure any new credit is reported. Use some of your money as collatral if needed but use as little as possible.

The new good credit will help you more than the old bad credit in most cases