Revolving accounts questions

[Anonymous]

I am 27 and finally attempting to understand this crazy world of credit. My revolving accounts show $1,427.00 however I only have 2 cc's with a combined cl of $820.00 Where is the rest of the balance coming from. I have both cards PIF but they are showing a $949.00 balance. Even with that where would the 478 be located? My goal is to qualify for an FHA and I need to raise my score about 100 points to be at my target fico. I have a bad debt/collection from a former capitol one account of $432 and a bad debt/collection of $46 on there. (which add up to the 478) But I thought these were closed months ago. Is it in my best interest to pay these off? What would be the effects to my debt utilization? Should I pay them off and leave them at a 0 balance or close them out? Thanks for all of the help I have already received by reading the other posts on here and to any suggestions you can provide for me here on this one.    

[Junejer]

Hello Dungie, and welcome to the forums. Please read Credit Scoring 101, if you haven't already.

Those old COs that are showing a balance do count in your balance and against util. In fact, those are what's really tanking the scores. Imagine this, the numerator goes up, but the denomenator doesn't change, the result is a bigger fraction. And for util in FICO scoring, that's not a good recipe.

If you can afford to pay those COs, I would try to get a PFD to get them removed from your credit report, if I were you.

How exactly are they listed on your CRs?