<prompt> Human: Hi, I was just wanting some opinions on my situation.I would like to buy a house near the end of next year, but my credit score is very low. I cannot seem to get it above 600 and not sure why.I have 2 credit cards that were charge offs sent to collection company. I am planning on having these paid off within the next three months. They do not fall off my credit report until 2018.I have a large student loan amount, but my payments are current. I have 4 car loans on my credit and all were paid off. I have no current credit cards and do not qualify for any and am leery about getting another one. If I pay off the two cards that were charge offs will that improve my credit rating at all? They report to the credit bureau every month and say CO and the collection companies report every month for the same since they were bought by debt collector. I have read many different things about charge offs and debt collectors. Some I have read say it does not matter if you pay old debts because it will not help your credit rating but you can do it because you should pay your debts. I will still pay these because I owe the money, but if it wont help my credit rating and I have been trying to improve it the last 3 years by paying bills on time, and its barely moving up, How can I improve it? Or like my title says Am I just screwed until 2018 when these charge offs fall off?  <response>: Youre not going to secure a mortgage with outstanding, unpaid debts in collection. Theres far more to securing a mortgage than just credit score; they look at your total financial details. A credit score is the mortgage equivalent of a recruiter chucking resumes into a garbage bin. 