Bad score no more debt where to go from here?

[Mellochick]

I recently fixed a lot of stuff that was on my credit report and I will be paying off the final item in collections next week. Now that I will have absolutely no collections or any debt, what's the quickest way to raise my score? Some have said take out a secured credit card and only use up to 30% of the  card and pay it on time monthly, others have said don't do anything because it will drop score. How am I supposed to improve credit right away??? I need 50 points in 2 months to buy house!! HELP!!!!

[eric19k]

Do you have any relolving TL?

[Mellochick]

Absolutely nothing on my credit report open. I do have a land contract on a house but payment is only $140 and I've been paying it on time for 3 years now and all the utilities. So only supplemental trade lines but none on my reports!

[DrJim]

You say that you are paying your last collection and won't have any more collections - did you get PFD's for all of them?  If not they are still on your report and hurt just as much as an unpaid collection.  If you did not negotiate PFD's you can GW those accounts.

3-4 revolving accounts and an installment account could help, but in the short term it will also give you inquiries and shorten your AAoA.

An alternative might be to use a CU or local bank that do manual reviews for your mortgage.

Good luck!

[Mellochick]

Even if I can't get them deleted they will show as paid which will look better to an underwriter than an open collection. I just need advice how to boost my score rapidly.

[eric19k]

You need 2 or 3 revolving and at least 1 installement.

You can try Fingerhut for installement.
Get a secured CC or apply with Capital One or Credit One. Credit Union should be a huge help also.
Paid collection hurts you score.

[DrJim]

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@Mellochick wrote:

Even if I can't get them deleted they will show as paid which will look better to an underwriter than an open collection. I just need advice how to boost my score rapidly.

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You are correct that it will look better with a manual review.  But you were asking how to get your score up quickly.  If you can get the collections removed it will have an immediate impact on your score and make it more likely to be approved for revolvers.

[Drsgwld]

How I started was I used 5th 3rd as a secured CC, simply because they report to all 3, my score when applying only dropped 3 pts, and it does not show as a secured line! It raised my score 50 pts. What I did was used it several times in the month going up to 30% of usage and then just before the bill came out I paid it down to 5% usage!

[OHWWCB]

I got a couple of credit cards, paid them all on time and usually in full and between December of 2013 and now my score went up 140 points from 540 to 680. I also bought a car in that time period.

[Drsgwld]

+1