715 FICO score, how can i raise my credit report score

I have pretty good credit (715 middle FICO score) but I have a lot of debt. I mean like $100,000 in credit card debt. I know, I know, what was I thinking. It's a combinations of stupidity and despiration. I was young and stupid and put college on credit cards and then later a divorce and just life in general got me here. Having said that, I have never made a late payment on anything no matter how many jobs I had to have to do it. I just seem to hang on with God's help. I have a question for you that I don't think I have ever seen addressed anywhere. I wondered if you had run across anything that might help me. I have a lot of old accounts that are in good standing. I'm wondering if I should ask the credit agencies to take them off my report. I'm not sure if they hurt me because they are just hanging out there as potential credit that I could tap into one day. I haven't in the past 7 years, but they are still there and available to me and I'm wondering if that factors into my score. Is there such a thing as too much available good credit?
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680 FICO score is average
you are above average and should be happy with a 715

if you want neon super credit person, you might get it down to one credit card and one home loan.
plus your home loan should be less than 80% owed
and your card should be less than 50 % owed against high credit limit
so you can have a low balance debt to high credit ratio

but i doubt it hurts your score much to have very old credit you might possibly use one day

i have seen very few 800's
most haveonly about 3 lines of credit with almost nothing owed on them

715 is a great score and i like the flexibility of having open credit myself

Should I remove closed credit card accounts from my credit report

I was wondering how I would go about getting closed accounts off my credit report or if it is even necessary? I have about 5 credit cards on my account that I paid in full and closed a few years ago. They show on my credit report as paid in full, closed by consumer.
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Unless they are reported as negative and less than 24 months or more old
it makes no difference

keep new good credit going

College discover card and master card maxed out. Remove fix clean delete late payments raise credit score

In college i was given a discover and Mastercard that i maxed out and eventually had serveral late payments. After graduating I was able to pay off both of the cards. During college i closed both of the cards, thinking that it would help me. In 2006 my credit report showed that both cards were paid in full. I thought that i needed to establish good credit by getting a new credit card. The only company that approved me was capital one. I have been paying all of my bills ontime, but my credit still lingers around 640. What should i do to increase my credit. Currently i have a balance on my capital one card. Also, is there anything that i could do to have the late payments removed from my credit report -i.e. discover and mastercard? Should i open the discover card account - which is my oldest account - and have my balance transfered from capital one? Please help! Also, I have amortgage and two other credit cards open which are in good standing. My goal is to hopefully have a minimum credit score of 750 in the near future
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if you had late payments and paid something off before negotiating you cannot help your report.
Unless
I re open one of those same accounts, pay good 1 year, then ask for removal of old lates.

get 3 open rated accounts with no past lates, drop balances on credit limits to less than 80% of maximum.

shoot for 700-720

Loan officer told us to close our credit cards for new good credit.

Loan Officers don't seem to know what they are talking about I've learned. I see that you state we should reopen accounts and NOT close accounts in good standing. I have read this statement (not closing accounts) on other pages as well.
While on maternity leave with our 2 nd child my job was closed unexpectedly. That caused some late payments, we went through a "credit counseling" that took plenty money from us but weren't up to par with our creditors.
We talked to a Loan officer who told us to take & close our accounts we did not use & the ones that were in good standing. Even though the balances were at ZERO, she said it was still considered "possible debt". So we did this thinking what she said made sense. Now we hear different. The cards on our reports still state zero balance/account closed by consumer's request. But it has been a couple years and our score that has plummeted could we still request that they be reopened?
B) I have had 2 Loan officers RECENTLY tell us 2 different things.1) we should negotiate paying off our debt but do it in Monthly payments so that reflects monthly on our credit report that they are paying as agreed.
2) The other said to come up with a sum and pay it in full with one payment, creditors will be more likely to cooperate with one check than with payments over time. either way it won't help our score.Who is right?also the 4 accounts we are having these issues with have been transferred to collection companies. The original creditors have $0 balance with the collection Companies holding the balance. However the 4 accounts are reported 8 times. (1 each for the 4 original, then 1 each for the 4 collections) The one original creditor said they can't do anything because it is not in their hands anymore. so should io still try to negotiate with the original creditors or just go straight to the collections?I've heard 2 stories for this also.1) The original creditor will take arrangements & call off the collections company.and2) The Original Creditor may take payment but have no hand with the collection company so we may end up having to pay the collection company also. Since the original was already charged or written off they are getting the benefits twice while the collection company will still want the debt they bought from original creditors.P.S. a word on one of your blogs regarding the double jeapordy. I challenged this with the credit bureaus and they have been changed on our reports to show the same date to be off the record as the ORIGINAL debt. So even if the collection company bought it 2 years after, it was changed to show the original date to be taken off that is posted by original creditor. so it is possible. You just have to try.
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Either way it wont' help your score right NOW is the right answer.
One should have at least three open accounts.
If you have like 8 or 10. Then it is good to get down to 3. So closing does help sometimes.
BUT
Not your only good rated credit. How the heck are you going to be able to raise your score with no good credit open now?

Loan officers by an large are not credit people. They are loan people.

I would work with the collection companies. You already called orginal creditor.

Pay in full if they will remove it from you credit. But pay no matter how you do it.

Monthly payments will not help you if you are have non revolving credit issues. Collection is not revolving credit. So monthly payments is NOT going to help you with those accounts.

Credit card closed by creditor. Should I pay them off

I have a credit card that has been closed by the creditor but I still owe about $4,000 on it. If I pay it down, will this help my credit? What is the best way to proceed with this?
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It always helps to pay something down or off.

If you can, pay them off.
I would try to re open the card and after one year asked for the creditor to only report the last 12 months activity or too have the old lates removed.

Credit Card, Collection, Court, Judgement, Attorney fees

What options do I have once a collection has gone to court? The attorney representing the credit card company did not provide me with any information to verify that the debt is mine or how it was calculated. They say I've defaulted and am ordered to pay. Can I use a revised version of the debt validation letter to make them put up or shut up? What about attorney's fees? Can they add them to my judgement?
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They would have to prove validation in court
So use it
They can add all fees

If I close accounts can I raise my credit score

Is it true that if I close out accounts which have been paid in full that my credit score will go down? I was told by a local bank just that. I have several accounts which I have paid in full and I am afraid to close them out. My present credit score is 797, which is not bad, but I would love to have it jump to 850 if I can. Please advise how I can accomplish my goal.

Thank you,

Live human being
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Bo Majors / to Perfect credit score and wants it better / May 10
It is somewhat embarrassing to answer questions from a 797.
Find some other project as this one is not in need of tending.