Advice on what to open, what to pay

[Anonymous]

I have been gobbling up this info for days and am finding ideas to clean up my CR, but I am still confused about a couple of things. I have 8 things that are negative on my report. All chargeoffs. About two years ago I paid 5 in full, 1 I negotiated less. I have two more, but they are due to drop of in March 08 and August 08, yet are still damaging my revolving credit line. The score watch says I have 84% which is too high. I only have one credit card from US Bank which I have had for two years which is secured, I pay in full each month and a student loan paid on time for two years also. I now know that I need two other forms of revolving credit and that I should keep my balance lower instead of paying it in full each month. I recently just asked US Bank to increase my credit limit and if they dont I will just add to my secured limit. My question is about these two accounts that I have not paid. I am afraid to touch them because I keep reading conflicting info about reactivation. If I pay the collection agencies will it reactivate the 7 year rule? Should I pay it to lower my revolving debt ratio? I have had a 597-604 Equifax score since january and it goes up and down once a month between those numbers. I have only jumped 50 points since 9/2006, yet I have paid everything on time and I have not had an inquiry for two years on my report. My second question is how many inquiries is too many? I want to apply for cards so I can keep my balance low and create a stronger history, but I don't feel comfortable applying for 6 or 7 like some people do all at once. I am currently traveling abroad this week and am at an internet cafe. I hope that this is readable. Thanks

[NoMelonsNoLemon]

I myself am kind of new, I read a post by "The grand Magistrate" (Tusc) that listed laws, I think it is his credit scoring 101 you'll find at the top of the General Credit Issues page.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654 Is the link to it It is there or even another link, where he mentions that it does not matter if you pay on a chargeoff or not, it legally is suppose to come off in 7 years from the date its status goes into chargeoff. you will also find in that post "DON'T" try to get 6 or 7 cards at one time. This site also explains that if you apply for cards your CR will suffer short term, so keep that in mind if you are going to try to get a loan for a major purchase.

[Tuscani]

 "The grand Magistrate", funny!

OP, paying will not reage. But you have to ask yourself if paying now is worth just waiting it out. If you do pay make sure to get PFD.