A Credit One pre-approval mailing, and subsequent approval last week prompted my rebuilding journey. I then applied for Fingerhut, figuring I'd get Freshstart, and to my amazement, I was approved for $400 regular credit. It's a good store card rebuilder. My scores are in similar ballpark to yours, only slightly higher. Though I have judgements showing and outstanding collections larger than yours, though much is dropping off.
If you have no revolvers and don't have funds to put down on a secured card, Credit One is an unsecured card to consider. It's pricey, but not really that bad when one understands it's a rebuilder, not a prime, longevity card, and the fee structure - key to success with Credit One, and similar sub-prime cards, is paying well above the minimum amount due (double or more; always paying off may not be desirable - occasionally carrying over some balance may be helpful) at least 2 weeks before the due date.
In regards to Fingerhut Freshstart program, do not pay off the entire balance. Pay it off over 4-6 months and you'll likely be upgraded to an unsecured line of credit.
You'll likely get a 50+ point pop with a store card and one, or ideally two, revolvers (secured or unsecured; doesn't matter) in short order from what I've read. That's what I'm hoping for. Seriously considering subscribing to the 3 score myFICO service - the free score places are ok, but their scores are all over the place. Both CreditKarma and CreditSesame show my TransUnion score as 587, but a recent on-line credit denial letter said my TU score was 507. That's a huge difference!
I get the sense my scores are worse than I initially realized, though on the bright side, the lower they are, the quicker they can improve ... it's far easier to go from 500 to 600, or even all the way upto 650, than 700 to 800.
