I SORT OF disagree with Robert. I've been monitoring my scores and following sites like this one ever since late 2005, when I was finally able to pay off all the things that went delinquent due to health problems, resulting in loss of income, in 2001.
What I have observed is that the score simulator at MYFICO seems to get less useful as you get into higher scores. It appears to me that the lower your score, the more use the simulator may be for you.
I also agree that what you can input is somewhat limited. HOWEVER, there is a specific input for paying your revolving credit down by whatever amount you want to, and this seems to be exactly what you most want to know right now.
Unfortunately, according to what you have said, paying down revolving, making absolutely certain that you NEVER have even a single 30 day late payment from now on, and refraining from applying for ANY new credit cards are all you can really do at this point to increase your score. Your revolving debt to credit ratio IS hurting you pretty badly, but even paying it down below 30%, or even below 20%, probably won't get you above the very low 600s, and I know from experience that low 600s is not a very good score.
Also note that requesting a CL increase on an existing card will generate an inquiry which will hurt your score exactly the same as an inquiry that resulted from an application for a new card will. And in your situation I don't think you want to have any more than 3 inquiries within the last 12 months. By the way, didn't your Capital One card come with an automatic increase program where if you paid on time and did not go over limit for the first 3 months they would automatically raise the CL? Mine came with that program. IN fact, they even gave me a break and let me have an extra chance at it after I went over limit in that period due to fees and interest charges.
Your main problem is time, and there's nothing you can do to fix that. Your negative stuff isn't that old, and, it seems, neither are your current accounts. You have relatively recent collections on your report and those have a worse negative effect on your score than even accounts with late payments. Even paying a collection doesn't have very much positive effect. In fact, I suspect it has no immediate positive effect on the score. About the only thing worse for your score than a collection is a judgment, and the only "cure" for a collection is time. Once it's paid, the older it gets the less effect it will have on your score.
The one thing you CAN do is try to get it off your report. If you have an open collection, offer to pay it in full, rather than settling (collection companies will always offer a settlement amount less than the total), if they will agree to remove it completely from your report. If they are working for the original creditor (as opposed to either working for someone who bought the account from the original creditor, or being the actual current owners because they themselves bought it), you can even try to get an agreement to remove the original delinquent account listing. Unfortunately, if the original guys sold the account and the collector is either working for or is the new owner, they won't be able to do anything about the original delinquent account listing, and it will stay on your report until 7 years after the last activity.
You may be told that they either cannot remove the collection or that they never do that kind of thing. The person you are talking to may even believe that to be the case, but it is not. Whoever has reported an account to the credit bureau has the ability to have it completely removed. You may have to get up the supervisory chain to find the person who has the authority to agree to a deletion in return for payment in full, but that person does exist.
If you do get the agreement, make sure you have it in writing before paying them. Also make sure it specifies some time, such as "immediately upon receiving payment in verified funds". If it doesn't mention something like that, they could take months to get around to doing the deletion. Also make sure the agreement does not say they will delete the "trade line" - the "trade line" is the original account listing. You need a "collection account" deleted, not a "trade line". If the collection agency is working for the original creditor, you might try to get the "trade line" deleted too, thereby eliminating any record of delinquency, but the "collection account" is the score killer you need to lose.
If you have already paid all your collections, you obviously cannot use this strategy. However, you can still do what the credit "repair" outfits do. Wait a few (3 or 4, I'd say) months after you paid the collection, then file a dispute with the credit bureaus. If they verify the collection, wait at least a month and dispute it again.
Each dispute you file creates 2 different possibilities for getting rid of the thing. First, some collection companies will, occasionally, actually ignore a dispute and not answer it if the thing has already been paid. Second, there is a time limit, and they may fail to answer the dispute in time. This second possibility is the reason you keep filing disputes even after a collection has been verified. In either case, the result is that the bureau has to delete the account from your report.
There are a couple of things to be careful of if you do not want a credit bureau to refuse to process a dispute because it is "frivolous" since they previously verified the collection (Experian especially loves to pull that one). First, if a collection is verified, wait at least a full month before disputing it again. In fact, 2 or 3 months is even better. Second, you have to give a specific reason for each dispute. Your first dispute might be over the Date of Last Activity. In fact, THAT date often IS wrong in collection listings. It's supposed to be the date of the last time you paid the original creditor or did something like telling the creditor you were going to pay. Collectors sometimes use when you paid the collection as Date of Last Activity. In any case, your second dispute might be about the dollar amount involved. Your third dispute might be about how many 30 day late payments you had. And so on. And if you get an answer from a bureau saying they already verified the account so your dispute is frivolous, point out that you did not dispute and they did not verify THIS part of the listing.
You may be surprised at the success you can have in getting things off your report through repeated disputes.
One last bit of advice. Everyone says a score above 720 is golden, so that seems a good target to shoot for. You will, however, qualify for loans before reaching that point. By the time you reach something like 620 or 630, you will probably find you can borrow from several sources, not necessarily limited to finance companies, either. At that point, try some banks and/or credit unions. Borrow enough money to get your revolving debt to credit ratio at least below 30%, below 20% if you can borrow that much. And tell the lender exactly what the money is for. Knowing you're going to use it to pay down revolving debt is usually a plus for you in their decision making process. (I'm guessing you will probably not have been able to get it that low before then.) The thing is, if you're in the 40s, 50s, or even higher, with a score around 630, and you suddenly get it under 30% or even 20%, you will see a large score increase, probably to something above 700.
