CA needed. Overspent starting college, looking to rebuild.

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, first post here. 

Basically, starting college I immediately succumbed to pressure from banks and got a credit card, then another, and then bought a motorcycle on credit. All when I shouldnt have and didnt have the financial means to be doing so.

Now, I'm nearing graduation/getting my real world bearings and have been fortunate to obtain an internship and have been using my pay to pull myself out of past debts. In January I will begin my final semester of college and would like to know what steps I can take to improve my credit score to the best it can be.

As of 7/31/2012, I ran my report and these were the equifax results:

Score: 574 

accounts: 4

1 collection

2 accounts with late payments 

81% revolving debt ratio

debt: 6,042

oldest account: 3 years, 8 mo

average account: 2 years

Account 1: 

Cap 1 card motorcycle is on. It says "account closed by credit grantor" on the credit report.

late 30 days once in sep 2011

limit: 4000

Account 2:

discover

good standing, no late payments

limit: 1500

Account 3:

credit union card

late 30 days twice, august and sept of 2011

limit: 1500

account 4:

credit card

good standing, no late payments

limit: 500

collections:

once with comcast in sept 2011, has been paid in full and shows 0.00 balance on credit report.

Since this report, I have been applying most of my paychecks to these debts and have almost paid all of them off. Boy does it feel good.They are all paid off except account 1, where this about 1,000 left and I will pay off this coming month. My questions are: Do you guys have a ballpark fico number I can expect to be at once this last 1,000 is paid off?  what steps can I take to continue rebounding my credit score? I aspire to get into the "good" or better categories. With my pay much higher than it was opening these accounts, can I expect to see a credit limit increase at any point? 

Sorry for the block of text, just a young kid trying to take control of his future and patch up the past.

[Anonymous]

Bump. Any advice helps! 

[Shogun]

First off, welcome to the Forums and I congratulate you on taking control of your finances.  And you are doing so pretty early in life!  Now, keep paying those down, the less percentage on your util will definitely improve your score.  Now, take into account it will take a bit to fix this right, scores will go up and down.  Don't worry about that, let's just worry about cleaning up your CR.

The credit union card that was late.  Send a GW letter to your CU asking them for a deletion.  You won't know if you don't try.

The paid collection.  Send them a GW asking in good faith if they will delete the account.

Stay with us on here and we will help you get this done!