Need a kick to get started

Hi, I've been lurking and reading the countless useful posts on this board for about a month now and want to finally get my credit back on track. I went to myfico.com and pulled my reports (2 of 3). Experian wouldn't pull from myfico.com because it said I didn't have enough recent activity to create a score so I went to experians site and pulled my report there.

My scores are TU-617 Equifax-591 Experian-575

Just for kicks, I did the Fico Simulator at myfico.com and the Recommended action selection just said to open a credit card to boost my points.

Now that is all well and good and that is what I want to do (I have to buy a car next month, current one is hanging in there for now). I had some problems in the late '90's early 00's (basically 97-02). I had lost my job, lost my house, had to move (obviously) and filed chapter7 which was discharged 8/2000. I noticed there are a few collections and one judgement that appear. The collections (9 total) range from $75 to $442 and total about $1500 all together.

There are many items (collections) that are reporting as chargeoff/profit and loss and bad debt/collection and they are still showing balances.

My question is, do I just start sending the debt validation letters or should I call the credit bureau (equifax) since there is no contact information for these collections showing (most are showing OC's--and an amount but no phone numbers). Should I try to call these places first and see if I can just send in the amount listed to get it shown paid or would that make it look worse?

After the bankruptcy and I moved, the car I had was financed but soon broke down and bogged me down in repairs and before I could get my head straight it was repossessed. The item is listed as a chargeoff/profit and loss since 2002 as date of last activity:

This is the listing from Equifax for the car:
Account Number xxxxXXXX
Account Type Installment
Credit Limit
(High Credit)
$16,000
Minimum Monthly Payment (Terms) $425
Date Opened September, 1997
Date of Last Activity December, 1998
Description Auto
Involuntary repossession

This is the second listing of this item under a different company for the car:
Account Number xxxxxXXXX
Account Type Installment
Credit Limit
(High Credit)
Minimum Monthly Payment (Terms) $424
Date Opened September, 1997
Date of Last Activity February, 1999
Description Charged off account
Auto
Last Report on November, 2002
Balance Current status Past Due Amount
$11,397 Bad debt/collection

And this is the TU listing for this:

ccount Number xxxxxXXXX
Account Type Installment Account
Credit Limit
(High Credit)
$15,691
Minimum Monthly Payment (Terms) $424
60 Monthly
Date Opened September, 1997
Date of Last Activity August, 2000
Date Paid Out Not on Record
Date Closed March, 2002
Loan Type Automobile
Collateral
Description Profit and loss writeoff
Last Report on November, 2002
Balance Current status Past Due Amount
$11,397 Charged off as bad debt $0

Two of them (1 equifax and 1 tu listing have the same account number) the other one from equifax (1st above) has a different account number.

Not sure what direction to start in, and should I persue the "open a credit card' (if I can get one) suggestion from MyFico.com now or get some of this cleared up first?

Sorry for the long post, just a little trigger-shy after reading about how other people have actually worsened their situation by not starting correctly.

 

Thanks for the advice, my next question to get started is, should I dispute a couple (2-3) now and wait for those to come back and then do a couple more or should I throw disputes in on all of them now and see what happens?