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I assume the my best course of action is to pay down my cc debt and let the collection that are 7 years old fall off the report. Is that correct?
Yes! Paying down your balances is going to be the most effective because right now you are over 100% uti. Work on paying those down. Try to get the higher interest one paid off first, then work on the other one.
I would also work on the Medical collection since it is recent. Try to contact them and offer to PIF if they delete it from your credit report, and make sure you get it in writing before you pay!
You can write GW letters for the others, or try early exclusions with the CBs but since they will fall off in a couple of months I'd focus on the other stuff.
Once you accomplish those, your best bet is to get another revolving credit line. Make sure that 2 are PIF to zero balance BEFORE the statement cuts, and the other has less than 10% uti to optimize your scores. Depending on your scores now and your interest rates on your cards, you may want to consider just apping for a card now that will give you 0% interest for ___ months on balance transfers and use it to pay off your other two cards, then pay down your new card before you start getting charged interest.
Also, if you don't have an installment account, you should look into a $500 or $1000 secured loan, but again, most important is to get those balances down on your current cards and try to PFD on your medical. Those will have the biggest impacts on your scores!
@Anonymous wrote:I assume the my best course of action is to pay down my cc debt and let the collection that are 7 years old fall off the report. Is that correct?
Very solid advice in the previous post above.
Yes paying down and off your CC debt is the best thing you could possibly do for your scores right now.
Second to that is doing whatever you can to get negatives removed, starting with the most recent. Don't worry so much about anything that is 5-7 years old as most of that will fall off relatively soon. Target anything recent as items from the last couple of years have both the most negative impact on your scores and will be sticking around for the longest amount of time on your reports.
I am going to send you a quick PM.