DOES PAYOFF OFF of LATE ACCOUNTS INCREASE FICO SCORE QUICKLY?

[Anonymous]

We are in the process of deciding whether or not to sell our house and use our equity to pay off our debt problems.

We are in a financial bind, so besides working something out with a debt collection agency, or even filing bankruptcy, this would be our only option.

Now, if we would do this, and pay most of our revolving debt down, would it help our fico score quick enough to go rent a place?  You know how they all check credit scores now!!

Is there anything specific I should do for the one or two that have been turned over to a collection agency?

I have been paying my bills on time, or at least no late payments for many years now, so this is something that just came up within the past 3 months or so.

Can anyone advise me quickly on this???  I'm so worried about what to do!!

Thank you all so much!
TnT (Tina)

[Anonymous]

I would pull your FICO score...unfortunately, if you suddenly got a small raft of collections and lates, it probably tanked. Pull your CR and FICO and we can probably give more specific advice, but just judging from what you've said so far, you likely have a situation here.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there are a couple in collections and my fico score right now is 508.  Drastically reduced....  used to be up in the mid to upper 600's.

It's the lates that are showing up and the increase in "credit", because of the finance charges that they keep hitting me with.

There are only 2 in collections, but I'm sure I could work those out if I paid them off. 

Anything??