Credit Repair Advice

Hi, just joined today as I have been reading the posts. There seems to be very knowledgeable people in this forum and I am hoping they can help me out.

Here is my credit situation

FICO is around 580-600

My credit profile is this:

Bank of America mortgage - 1 year, 2 months old, no lates

Regions Bank Car Loan - 2 years old, no lates

AMEX authorized user - approximately 40-50% utilization based on the high balance that is shown on the report

Student Loan - Balance is 26k. 10 year installment at 8% interest. This is killing me. There were lates on this loan a few years ago, 30 day and 90 days, but the account is current now and has been reporting fine for the past couple years, except for one 90 day late that I believe is in error last Sept.

Car Loan from BMW, opened in 2003, paid in full and closed in 2008. A couple 30 day lates reporting about 5-6 years ago.

I just applied for a Cap One card and received the card with a $500 unsecured line. I did the same for a HSBC card and received a $300 unsecured line.

Bad stuff:

Capital One - $500 credit line, current balance is $1900 with all the interest. Opened in 2003, charged off in 2005

Capital One - $1000 credit line, current balance is $3000 with all the interest. Opened in 2003, charged off in 2005

Collection account for $700 - I am not sure what this account is, because it says exxon mobil, but I dont recall ever opening up a gas card. Says opened in 2007.

Collection account for $400 - For Verizon. Apparently a balance I had when I switched mobile carriers. Reporting since 2008


I have tried disputing with the credit bureaus to clean up my reports, but havent had any luck. I dont mind paying off what I owe (Verizon and Capital One), but I dont want to do this if they don't remove the derog account from my report.

I spoke to a paralegal who works for a consumer protection attorney and she told me the best way to increase my fico score at this point is by reducing the student loan account. Does this sound right?

In any event, I would like some advice as to what I should do. Proper steps to take and so forth. I dont want to do anything that wont benefit me or would possibly make my situation worse.

Is there anyone I could hire who could do the right thing for me? I make decent money now and I dont have a problem fulfilling current obligations nor do I have a problem taking care of these derogatory accounts. My current job is stressful enough and my credit report is causing me stress, so I am hoping maybe I could retain to take care of my "dirty work"

I want to get my credit scores to a respectable number so I can get a decent car loan. I need to get out of the car I have right now.

Thanks!

 

Actually the Amex is one of those no limit cards, but the credit report shows a high balance of 19k and the current balance is around 8-9k.

Should I just have myself removed from the Amex card? If I pay the new capital one and hsbc cards in full every month or every 2 weeks, will that help?

I am just at a loss in what to do, because I havent gotten anywhere in trying to get the charge offs and collections off my report.

Ideally, I would like to get my score increase and then do whatever I have to do to get those charge offs and collections off my report. I'll do a paid for deletion, whatever. I dont care.

If someone can do this for me (sending letters, disputing, negotiating with collections for paid for deletion, etc), I will be more than happy to retain their services

 

I spoke with Apex Credit and Jason B. has been very helpful. He will be getting back to me with a plan of action.

Hopefully I can get my report cleaned up.

Thanks