Car loans and mortgage loans shows late payments and i have closed many credit cards

Real Live Human / to me / show details / Mar 7
Dear Bo:First of all, thank you so very much for your self-help advice on credit reports. It is extremely helpful and timely for me. I want to purchase a home with my fiance and wish to get pre-qualified first from a lender.I sent for my free credit reports from the government suggested cite and learned that my score in Equifax is 620 and in Experian is 680. I have several credit cards that I do not use that were listed on my credit report--something like 8 of them. I went ahead and cancelled all these cards thinking it would work against me to have so many credit cards on my report. Now I understand that that was a mistake. Can I re-open an account without it showing up as a new account? Is it worth trying to do this?Also, I had a bad debt of $86 listed on my account from an unpaid medical bill that was the result of the insurance company going to my former employer and finding that my dependent whose care this concerned, was listed as terminated from my insurance. At the time, I sent a letter to the insurance company to that affect and they said they would reprocess this. They must not have because the debt now sits on my credit account. To avoid any further threats to my score, I went ahead and paid the amount -- $80. The credit collection agency (Nationwide Credit) said they would report that the case is closed to the credit bureau. Does this mean that it will actually be removed or do I need to do something further to insure this gets done.Lastly, yes, I do have some late payments on both my mortgage (probably 1) and my car (probably 1). Is there anything I can do to mitigate the negative impact of that on my score.Thank you again for your great service to regular folks like me.Sincerely,
Real Person
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Bo Majors / Live Human / show details / Mar 7
yes to number One, you can re open the same account
Will show up as paid collection. 2 years from date of last activity that in and of itself will be meaningless.
Car and mortgage stuff has to be caught "as happening" to get changes done
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Live Human / to me / show details / Mar 8
Thank you, Bo. I truly appreciate your help and your service to all of us!