Recently my credit union offered me a reverse loan, to help rebuild my credit,

My name is REAL PERSON and after being a single mom at age 17, i have managed to distroy my credit.
Here i am at age 30 trying to get back on my feet. When my husband and i had our daughter two months premature, we accumulated over $200,000 of medical bills, (she was in the NICU for almost two months, we had issues with our hmo) we filed for chapter 7. Currently, I have 6 collection agency account with balances of zero, and two auto loans that we surrendered the vehicles to when we filed bankruptcy as zero as well.
I havent applied for credit with the fear of being rejected and having another ding on my credit report.
Recently my credit union offered me a reverse loan, to help rebuild my credit, they put $5000 in my savings, and report im paying on time, and i make payments to my bank.
A friend of mine who is in the real estate business introduced me to the DELETION LETTER and recommended i try to use it.
My question to you is, should i contact the 6 collection agencys and the two auto loan companies to pay them the $1500 total i owe to them (even though they have zero'd out my balance because of the bankruptcy) and ask for them to delete the file. and if i do this will it help my credit score? or am i better off, using that $1500 to establish new credit? which will benefit me more.
I have tried to get a credit card and have been denied...they offer me a secured credit card....should i do that until i can raise my score enough?
My second question is on your website you mention in #7 that creditors may get nervous and pull you credit to see what they have done. That this is illegal. Im curious why this is illegal. I had a creditor to this to me and want to find out how to rectify it.
Anyway....thanks for your website, it has helped me alot... thanks for any response.
REAL PERSON
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1. The reverse loan sounds like a GRReat idea. Do that for sure.
2. I would suggest you use my free dispute form without making contact before. Hope something falls off. No collection or creditor is going to help you this far down the road on deleting credit files but they might not verify your dispute. Dispute 2 at a time and cross your fingers.
3. Get a secured card if they report to all 3 bureaus. Better yet get a unsecured card by sending a cashiers check in with you application.
4. Creditors can pull your credit if you authorize. If not they are in legal trouble.