Steps to take

[Creditdreamer]

I had 3 collections. I have paid one. My two left are: Citi for 7500 and a local CU for 1200. I have recently gotten a car loan which should be building credit and I got a secured CapOne card with 200 CL.

My question is what should my next couple steps be?
I could up my credit limit on CapOne or should I get another secured card? Am I better off setting up a payment arrangement with Citi (or trying to negotiate a PFD) or paying off the smaller collection? Should I try to get other credit/loans? Not sure what order to do all these things in.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[RobertEG]

My first priority would be to address the unpaid collections.  They represent the chance of further damage. 

You need two items of information in order to assess the unpaid collections.  First, you need to know the DOFD on the OC account that led to the collection.

All flows from that critical date.

Next, you need to know whether the debt is still within your state statute of limitations.  Look up your state SOL for the type of debt.  Running of the SOL will most likely be from the same date as the DOFD on the OC account, but that can vary by state.

Once you have those dates, come back to the forum for some specific advice.

[Creditdreamer]

SOL in my state: 4 years
Citi DOFD: June 2010
CU: December 2010

Both debts are currently within the statute of limitations so I know there's a chance I could be sued. I need to handle the Citi debt ASAP I think since it's the highest. They were offering a settlement of 2500 (through the CA) in the mail. I've been trying to pay off current bills before worrying about the collections because I don't want to have lates added to my CR. I want to try to do a PFD for Citi since it's such a large debt but I haven't heard of any luck with it and I don't want to raise the chances of being sued by waiting longer than I have to.