Rebuilding my credit

[cpchow]

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Credit-Questions/td-p/2051051 

For more on my situation. 

Summary: 

"Yeah Ill probably wait for the 6 months when all the Soft/Hard pulls are off.

My credit is really bad (545 FICO TU) because of a very hard time with the family at one point.

7 CO from 4 Credit Cards, 1 from Utility, 1 from Electronics Loan, and GE Care Credit. Along with that is 4 collections.

I really don't know where to begin. :/

I was thinking about resolving the CO using PFD letters which accumulates to $2,800.

Then I was thinking about resolving the collections using PFD letters at a percentage of ~$7800 at 20-25% as all of them as been bought by CA of course. 

Does this sound reasonable? I'm only 22 (23 in a month) so I know I kinda screwed up at a  young age, but trust me, it was for good reason (to survive at that time). 

I really want my credit back regardless of the auto loan. I'm not worried about the auto loan because the bank would put my risk factor as low even with my credit when I put 60% deposit down and with my combined income at that time. 

Where should I begin?

I got declined by BoA Secured & Cap1 Secured because of past CO with them. 

I got approved for WF Secured for $300.

I'm trying to find a second secured card... any ideas?

Thanks "

Is that a good idea? Applied for US Bank Secured... awaiting decision. 

My other question is that I'm not understand CC utlilization 100% at the moment. So am I supposed to not use 1 or 2 of my CC and then just use one in capacity of 1-9% or use all of them... and pay the full balance on the other 1-2 and then leave a 1-9% balance on the one. I'm sure its the first, but wanna make sure. 

[cpchow]

bump

[InvincibleSummer3]

You know, if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about the utilization in the short term. There's a difference between manipulating those util numbers in anticipation of a "credit event" (like you're apping for something, a loan, CC, mortgage, etc.) and just being in something of a holding pattern while you rebuild.

If you want to apply for something, you'll want to watch the balances on your cards when they report. Try to pay your balances in such a way that one card reports at less than 10% utilization and any other cards report at zero. That's it. If you're not apping for anything? Your credit report is a snapshot of where you are at a particular month in time, so there's no memory of card utilization past 30 days. You don't have to control it quite that tightly unless you're looking to apply for something. Just make sure not to charge more than you can comfortably pay off, and make your payments on time, every time.

I was in a very similar position - so I got my two secured cards, and gardened for a while. By that, I mean I used them responsibly, paid them in full every month, and focused on getting my collections/charge-offs PFD'd.  My scores grew a bit every month as I got some "good" payment history reporting. I would encourage you to do the same. Time and good payment history will heal almost all credit wounds.