Need advice on where to begin

[parakeyu]

Hello everyone,

I've been trolling this board for about a week, and there is so much good information here. Unfortunately, everyone's credit situation is different and that is why I'm a little confused as to where I should start. Let me begin by giving you a thorough bg of my situation:

Like a lot of people, I got caught up with credit cards in college, and was current with them until 1999, when I had to leave the country when my mother got sick. I am now back in the country, and trying to repair the mess I got myself into. I have no problem with paying my debts, but I don't know where to begin.

# of good standing accounts: 4

1) HSBC - current & pays as agreed

2) Direct Merchants - current & pays as agreed

3) DT Credit - current & pays as agreed

4) AMEX – current & closed/cancelled by credit grantor

# of OC charge-offs: 6

1) Fingerhut – collection/chargeoff – Paid Collection

2) Citibank SD NA – collection/chargeoff – DOLA 11/1999

3) Citibank – chargeoff – DOLA 03/1999

4) Discover – collection/chargeoff – DOLA 06/1999

5) MBNA – collection/chargeoff – DOLA 12/1999

6) Structure – chargeoff – DOLA 12/1999

# of collection accounts: 4

1) Jefferson CAP – from Fingerhut – Paid Collection

2) Portfolio Recovery – from Discover

3) Cavalry Investments – from Citibank SD NA

4) Aargon Collection – Medical – Paid Collection

5) Just received a strange mailer from Capital One that says they are going to purchase my MBNA debt and want to give me a credit card that is tied to it in order to pay it off. 0% on the chargeoff amount, paying 3% monthly (approx $100). Will restore OC TL to “Paid in Full”

Note: SOL of contracted state & current state is 4 years

Here are my questions:

1. The DOLA I am using is based off of my Equifax report. Is this enough to use in court if I am sued? Most of the TL’s do not provide a last payment date.

2. I’m going to try to knock off the CA TL’s, but I wanted to know if OC’s make deals after this much time has passed. I would like to pay off my debt to them in exchange for cleaning up their reporting, but the last time I tried to call them they said they didn’t have my information anymore.

3. I also do not have enough cash to make full deposits, are OC’s open to payment schedules?

4. Several of the CA’s are listed under my Installment accounts. The original OC’s were revolving. Can I easily remove these from my CR?

5. Is the offer from Capital One decent, or do I have more leverage since my SOL is past?

I know this is long, but I noticed that everyone wants as much information as possible to analyze the situation properly. I ordered the book, but I just wanted to get people’s opinions as to where I should start. (my friends think I should just wait the 7.5 years)

Thanks in advance to any posts.

Just a nice little detail, I got the my first card ($1500 limit) when I was 17 with no cosigner. The rest came a year later……18 year old at college w/ 7 credit cards = really bad idea