Trying to Boost My Score - Couple Questions

[deviousdevelopment]

I'm in the middle of getting a mortgage loan.  My loan officer had me pay a couple collections and pay down my cards for the underwriter.  Here's how my report looks as of now (nobody has reported July yet):

8 three year old COs that were paid/settled a little over two years ago.  Not much I can do about these for now, maybe after the mortgage I'll send some GWs but for now, they stay.

HSBC

Limit 300

Balance 277

CapitalOne

Limit 500

Balance 473

Kay Jewelers

Limit 2200

Balance 750

GE Money

Limit 2000

Balance 1000

Auto Loan

Original Balance 26,000

Balance 12500

MediCredit Collection - Unpaid

Professional Collection - Unpaid

Columbia Collections - Paid 

Now, I paid the unpaid collections this week and they'll be deleted...hopefully soon.  Any guesstimate on a score increase?

The HSBC balance will report as 99 this month.  My question about this account is if I make yet another payment and pay this off to $0 before they report at the end of the month will this help or hurt me?  Nothings certain, I know, but I can't take the chance of it hurting me by paying it off.

The CapitalOne will report $135 this month (already got my statement so no chance in getting it down more since its going to report for this much this month)

The Kays will report as $630 even though the correct balance is $546 as they report a months balance behind.

The GE will report as $970 for this month unless I pay more.

Any other recommendations on giving myself a boost when these report?  How much would I have to pay on the GE for it to actually help make a difference in my util and score?  Just looking for some advice since I've got a couple days to do what I need to get the best score I can for August.

[medicgrrl]

The increase for the collections will depend on how old they are and if you have more recent bad accounts or are these the most recent?

As far as the cc's, your best scoring will be if only one card reports a balance and it is less than 9%.  Also, if less than 50% of your cards report a balance that will increase your score too.  Another option is to have those accounts that do have a balance report less than 9%.  There are lots of variables that you can do to increase your score.  Some lenders will do a mid cycle update if you call and request it.  I called JCPenny Friday and they are updating mine to show my new CL.  They said it would be updated in 24-48 hours.  You may want to call your lenders and see which will do this and then determine which accounts to apply funds to.  Definitely pay off the HSBC before the end of the month though.

[deviousdevelopment]

These collections are about 2 years old, both from late 2007.

[medicgrrl]

If these are your most recent baddies then I am going to guesstimate about 20 points for their deletions since they are less than 24 months old.

[deviousdevelopment]

Thanks.  Im sitting at 585 TU and 577 EQ and I'm just hoping to pay down enough cards and get the collections deleted to reach 600 this month.  Now that I've found these forums I definitely plan on being proactive and bringing those up once I have a home...or don't, whichever comes first.  

[medicgrrl]

I think you could see a nice boost with those deletions and paying down the debt.  My EQ started at 491 in March and sits at 605 today.  I was up to 628 but I have a new CA that popped up...am waiting for it to be deleted any day now. 

Do you have any open revolving accounts that are currently reporting a $0 balance?

[deviousdevelopment]

No, just that HSBC one when I pay it off tomorrow.

[medicgrrl]

I would call Cap 1 and Kay Jewelers and ask them if they will do a mid cycle update.  If they say no then try calling one of the backdoor numbers on the credit card forum.  I think getting Kay below 30% and having Cap 1 not show maxed out will definitely increase your score also!

[deviousdevelopment]

Thanks for the advice.  I'll call them this week and see if they'll do it.

Another quick question:  If I pay the CapitalOne to $0 also will this hurt me since both (and the only two) credit cards will have a $0 balance? Or should I just bring that to around 10%?