what is my best option to raise credit score? preferably within a year?
Approximately last year I was made a dumb mistake and fell victim to the "iPhone scam" and now I am in debt owing Verizon $1600 (which is now charged off) and AT&T $1300 (which was recently added on my report and "open"). Since I brushed this matter off like it was nothing, my score suffered and is now 560. A year later I am now wanting to pay it off since I want to be accepted for an apartment sometime in June 2017. I have the money for the debt but I'm not sure what would be my best option to raise my score overtime in a year. I was offered to settle the Charged off account, but I heard that wouldn't look good when looked at by apartments. Should I pay both debts in full? Pay the the charged off debt in full and make payments on the open account to have some type of positive history in my account? Make payments on the open account and settle on the charged off account? I just need to know the best option that would help my score the best. These are not credit card debts, but utility debts. Another thing is when I talked to the debt collector agency about paying the debt in full instead of settle in return for them to delete it off my report, they told me that they don't report it to the 3 credit bureaus but just to the original creditor (Verizon) so I would have to pay the agency and they will have to report it to them instead of the bureau, to me that didn't sound right because I thought all agencies reported to the 3 credit bureaus. But anyways what would be best for me?
