Need Help!!!

[meridianboy]

Hello I am 28 years old and i will be buying my first house in the next 8 months i hope. I have been working on my credit for the last 4 months by opening an installment loan,credit card,merchant card. All of these accounts have been paid each month and in good standing. I have some collections on my credit that i was unable to get removed. I have been looking into tradeline credit accounts but it will cost me some money to get them added. That's no big deal if it will work. If not should i just pay off all the collections first. What would be the best move for me. Again i know either way will cost money and that's no big deal but i need to do whats best for me short time to get my scores back up there. Here are my scores as of now.

WHAT SHOULD I DO? PLEASE! IM LOST AND WANT TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!


Trans Union Experian Equifax
547 603 514

Here is a breakdown of my report!
TransUnion Experian Equifax
Total Accounts 23 13 23
Open Accounts 15 3 4
Closed Accounts 8 10 19
Delinquent 1 0 0
Derogatory 16 8 15
Balances $4412.00 $2197.00 $4527.00
Payments $25.00 $111.00 $111.00
Public Records 1 1 1
Inquiries(2years) 12 4 15

[Steve]

Welcome to the site. First I would try to get those derogatory or deliquent accounts removed. Also, what is the public record? Bankruptcy? Also, try to lower your utilization by paying down your credit cards. If you have any credit cards that have been charged off, you can try to settle with the Collection agency with a Pay for Delete. They will usually settle for 20-50% of the amount owed, but you must get in writing that they will delete the account from all of the credit bureaus. These are just starting points. Stay current with you open accounts.

[Ivan.Gusev]

Also make sure that you don't have any accounts that are listed as closed yet have an outstanding balance on them, this bad to most lenders. You should definitely take care of that public records as soon as possible. As far as the collections depending on how old they are don't rush to pay them all off, if some are older than 2 years leave those at least until your are in the new home. If you pay them off they will automatically show up as current hence lowering your credit score. Hope this helps.