I hope you don't mind if I reply here. November 2012 I pulled my scores and was in the sub 500 area. Incredibly terrible. Since then I paid off all my old, delinquent debt, in full. Negotiated goodwill deletions on some collections, and opened up three new tradelines. I got barclaycard, Wal-Mart and old navy. I have paid all my accounts current and my barclaycard is the only card I let post a balance. ($15 currently). So my util is pretty low but optimized for scoring.
My former sub 500 scores are now mortgage worthy and I'm buying a house! Just recently approved through underwriting and I have tu & ex in the 690's! Equifax is lagging a little behind but I think it's because an old, good Citibank account is missing for some reason. It's completely possible to pull up your scores, you just gotta work hard at it.
