I am just curious..Is there anything I can do to better My score? It looks like a lot of people on here have raised their scores a lot! What can I do?  I also heard that the things do not leave your credit report after 7 years..Is that true?  Like for instance, I have a 2 late payments on my car loan...My car is paid off and I made 58 on time....Will it ever be fixed?  Also I have little bills in collection, should I pay them off? Can you make a deal? Like to pay it and they take it off the credit report? I really want to buy a house, so I am trying to get my score up to 660 and it is at 575 and 601 at the credit places....