What's worse collection, old late payments or new late payments?

[Christine]

I would like to get a car loan very soon, I have never needed "credit" for a large purchase before now so I never really paid much attention to my credit reports.

Now that I need it I would like to learn about mine before I go to a dealership and possibly be denied.

I have recently obtained my credit reports and scores, they are 589,610 and 600. From what I have gathered these are not the greatest scores but they are also not the worst scores either.

I have few old medical collection accounts that are 3 and 4 years old, a few 30 day late payments from 2 and 3 years ago and somehow I just got a 30 late payment on my Nordstom's card in Dec. (I didn't even know about this one)

My question is what should I try to work on first, I mean out of these three situations which one is hurting my score the most and which one will I get the most points back from.

Should I focus on the collection accounts because they are collections?

I am looking to get a new car in the next 3 months does anyone think this is possible with the score I have and as many neg items as I have?

Anyone and everyone's help would be wonderful.

Truly yours,

Christine

[mycreditgroup]

Hi Christine,

Its hard to give the best plan of attack without seeing how these issues are reporting. Given your time frame, the fastest way to improve your credit rating may be with your current credit card balances. Get your balances below 10% of your available limits. We've seen thousands of our clients gain 50,60 and 70 points just by paying off their credit card balances.

While you're at it, sending a validation letter on the old collections wouldnt hurt.