Rebuilding Your Credit

[Pastryprincessnails]

I'm new here I just checked my Equifax score it is 644 would like to get it up to 700 of course or higher and would like to know where to begin I have 4 baddies...1 of which is a cc with a past due balance of $436... Which will age off in 2015..and i do have a couple of cc that are maxed out at $300-$400 each please help?

[rckstrscott]

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Pastryprincessnails wrote:
I'm new here I just checked my Equifax score it is 644 would like to get it up to 700 of course or higher and would like to know where to begin I have 4 baddies...1 of which is a cc with a past due balance of $436... Which will age off in 2015..and i do have a couple of cc that are maxed out at $300-$400 each please help?

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Welcome to the forum

644 is a pretty good starting score.

I would just pay off your maxed out credit cards first. That will give you some score help.

what kind of baddies are you referring to? Collections? Provide more detail please.

-scott

[Pastryprincessnails]

i have 2 tax liens both of which will be paid and updated shortly...I have one  first premier bank card with a past due from 2008 i owe them $436 should i pay it or wait for it to age off which will be 2015 it has not gone to collections and the oc has offered me a settlement of $284...And then i have a chargeoff of $1000 on a line of credit account which is affecting my credit.... 

[guiness56]

If you know who the lien is from you can ask if they will remove after payment.  Some will, some won't.

I would take the settlement from FP and see if they will report as settled or PIF and not settled for less.

How old is the CO?

[Pastryprincessnails]

its from from 2008

[Pastryprincessnails]

But will it improve my score if paid its still a collection account?

[guiness56]

No.  Paying a 3rd party collection account will not improve your score.  Paid or unpaid FICO scores them the same, as a collection.