I am sure this has been touched on already here but I just want to post this to make sure i'm on the right track.

My credit score has been worse than it is now but it is still at the top end of "poor" credit according to creditreport.com. I am within 40 points of getting at least into "mid risk" credit and am determined to get it up there or higher within this year.

On the creditreport.com site, which I highly recommend using by the way, it has an "estimate your credit score" section where you can make changes to see what would happen to your score. I have a good number of collection/delinquent accounts from the past. According to the estimate, if I had 0 delinquent accounts I would improve my score 70 points putting it in the medium risk area which I dont' think I've ever had!

Has anyone had any experience settling collection accounts that can offer any advice to approaching this? I would like to get rid of all of them (amounting to about $4000 if I pay them all off without settlement). Any advice on this would help.

Also it suggests having no credit cards in good standing (I have none at all) is a negative too. Should I go ahead and get a secured credit card with a security deposit and make small purchases, paying it off at the end of each month? Is it worth it to do that?

Lastly, I would like to get a small mortgage as this apparently has a good effect on your credit score too but of course this is probably not likely until after I get my credit score up. Should I wait on seeking buying a small home or go ahead and try it now?

Any suggestions, or advice would be greatly appreciated. I think I'm on the right track but some encouragement and advice would be helpful.

Thanks for listening!
~S4