Hey pal! Great questions.
The first thing to do is to pull all three of your reports using annualCreditReport.com. Other tools for getting your reports are not 100% reliable in terms of finding all the past negatives. You want to print the reports out and look for every derog that you can. Circle them with a red pen. These include lates, collections, chargeoffs, liens, judgments, public records, and bankruptcies. The derogs are the biggest things that are hurting your score.
Then make a separate list of all these negatives. You'll need this when you talk to the people in the Rebuilding forum, and I will explain what that is in a minute.
Also be sure that you have looked through every account carefully and made sure that you understand what that account is and that it basically looks correct. Also be sure that every closed account has a zero balance -- I know you think you have done that, but do it again on the reports you get from ACR.
As far as your credit card balances, you want to pay down all of them to zero except one. The remaining card should be an open credit card and you should make sure it reports a small positive balance, like $10. It should be a major credit card (VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or Amex) in your name. If you only have store cards that is ok, but a major card is better. Paying down all your cards in this way will help your score.
You also want to make sure you stop applying for any new cards or loans. Do this until all your accounts and inquiries are at least a year old.
If you have no loans or other installment accounts, we can suggest one more thing that will help your score. It is called the Share Secure Loan Technique. You should not try it until you have done everything else I mentioned and have begun working on getting your deogs removed.
The best group of people to help you hang out in what is called the Rebuilding forum. Let me know if you'd like me to ask a moderator to move your discussion thread over there.
PS. The people who read your posts will be able to understand them better if you write several short sentences. (With periods at the end and maybe a comma if needed.) Your post was a long string of words without a break. Most people will not be able to understand that. You'll get more help if you break your thoughts into those shorter sentences. Good luck!
