Hi and welcome to the forums!
1st -- cancel Lexington Law. There is nothing they can do for you that you cannot do for yourself and they tend to just fire off a bunch of disputes that sometimes make matters worse. Also, your credit far from terrible.
Who is the collection agency reporting the gas collection?
The lates on the GAP card will begin to fall off December of this year, but in the meantime, you can try a Goodwill campaign to request the creditor remove early. Goodwills are basically letters written to lenders explaining why you were late (financial troubles, illness, etc.) while taking ownership for your irresponsibility. You request they remove the late notations as an act of goodwill so you may improve your credit. It may take more than one try for Goodwills to work, but they can, and often do, work. You can research "Goodwill Campaign" using the forum searchbar for more info.
You should also read and learn more on this forum about credit utilization so you'll feel more comfortable about actually using your cards and making them work for you.
Also - sorry if my response seems short and flippant -- I'm using my phone. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have 😊
I have to look up Transworld- I know I've seen others post about them here - I'll get back to you about that in a few.
3 revolvers and 1 installment is what's needed to optimize FICO scores. Your first three cards - for which you are the primary cardholder (not authorized user) are absolutely necessary to build your profile. Any points lost are regained as the accounts age - fully regained after 1 year.
In general though, yes, you want to be a bit slow and methodical when adding new accounts (you can get into the details of that later as you learn more about FICO scoring).
Inquiries can hurt a little too - temporarily. Any points lost due to an inquiry are regained when it ages to 365 days, though Inquiries will remain on your reports, as a record, for a full 2 years.
I would recommend first working on clearing your derogatories, learning about credit and utilization, and then applying for a 3rd card that you think would best benefit your spend (cash rewards, travel, etc ). You'll have better card options if you can at least rid your reports of that recent collection. But this is just my opinion - you may want to get your 3rd card now so it can age as you work on clearing your derogatories. Your decision.
Do you have any installment loans (auto, student loan, mortgage, etc.)?
Okay -- now that I'm back to my computer and able to function... here are some links to get you started. It's a lot to absorb so take your time -it's well worth it.
FICO Scoring Primer ( all the basics of scoring in one thread):
Goodwill Saturation Technique -- for the best odds of successful Goodwills:
As for your Transworld collection --- per the posts from others in this forum, they appear to be one of the worst collection agencies to deal with and basically outright refuse to delete their tradelines and always verify with a dispute (disputing this is not recommended as any update to the tradeline could drop your scores). The only out seems to be if your debt was paid directly to the original creditor (not paid through transworld) as this would allow for the original creditor to revoke collection authority which would force transworld to remove their collection tradeline. Any chance you actually paid the gas company directly and transworld simply updated their collection to reflect paid?
You could try a Goodwill with them -- making sure to explicitely state you are not disputing the account - and see what happens, but the odds don't look good based on others' reports. Here are the search results for transworld so you can read for yourself:
If it says "you're preapproved" then yes - Amex pre-approvals are usually pretty solid and the Green Card is a great starter charge card (people in this forum chase rewards and the Gold and Plat have better rewards, that's the only reason it's not as popular so don't let that sway you).
*The caveat with charge cards is that the individual utilization is ignored by FICO (except the Experian 98 family used for mortgages) but the account will count towards total balances owed and number of accounts with a balance. My mention of this caveat will make more sense as you read that Primer i linked and learn about AZEO, AZ Penalty, and number of cards with a balance.
The loan thing -- you will want to look into the SSL Technique, which is also discussed in that FICO Primer I linked (I think it's discussed in post 3 of that thread). Adding a loan will fulfill the installment loan portion of your credit mix and will boost your score -- it also thickens your file. Here's an older post describing how the technique works: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Sec...
Congratulations on your approval and YW!! Good luck with everything and get advice from the forum members on any questions you have or roadblocks you face -- and keep me/us posted on your progress!
