Where to from here???

[Anonymous]

So I had a rough patch where 3 accounts have been sent to collections which are now all resolved. My current score is between 595-638.

I have a best buy credit card ($800) limit and a capital one with a ($500) limit. I also have a mortgage.

I know a lot of building back credit is just about time, what else would you recommend of me to do? Also are there any good reads on this subject.

What are the best ways to approach rebuilding my credit the best/fastest.

Thank you.
-T

[llecs]

Paid collections are equally as damaging as unpaid ones, per FICO. If paid, are they still reporting? What are the reported balances on your CCs?

[Anonymous]

I don't believe they are. Do you use the program on this site to monitor your credit?

On my current cards I have balances of $400 and $300.

[retroAction]

Your combined utilization on those cards is almost at 60%. Cutting that to below the 10% range will not only improve your Fico score, but it will also increase your chances of getting credit limit increases.

You can use any number of free sites to answer the question of whether the collection accounts are still reporting on you CRs.

[llecs]

Ditto. Util is very high. Ideally get one to $0 and get the other to a balance of under 9% of your CL. I think if you get it under 10% as mentioned, you'd see a double-digit gain.

For report monitoring, first and foremost, get them for free via annualcreditreport.com. These reports have more detail than you can find anywhere else. Now don't buy any scores because the scores offered directly from each CRA are not FICO scores. For FICO, myFICO is the only place you can buy both FICO scores together (EQ and TU). Unfortunately the cost is around $20/pop. What many of us do is subscribe to a credit monitoring service, like USAA's CMS. You can pull your 3 credit reports daily if you wanted to and we can get an idea of what is happening on our credit reports. This service offers scores and advice that contradict FICO so ignore that aspect of the service, but come back here to pull your FICO if you wanted to know the score change. This is a cheaper alternative.

[Anonymous]

Great llecs! Thanks for the info!

So would it be better to bring them down or just pay them off?

Also after I'm done with that should I continue to accumulate up to 9% then pay off or spread out over a few months?