<prompt> Human: Me and my fiancé are looking to buy a house around December. We both have good stable jobs, make around 110k combined, and have about 10k saved up. Our problem is my credit is ruined. I was in a situation a few years ago where I thought I was going to file bankruptcy because I couldnt find a job and shit hit the fan. Fast forward now, I have about 4 derogatory marks on my credit and Im sitting around a 580 score with no debt and 2 secured credit cards totaling 2000. Her credit history is good, but has a little bit of debt at the moment. My question is, what can I do to improve it? The obvious answer is time, but is there anything else I can do to speed up the process? Ive read paying the collections doesnt offer any benefit. The collection accounts are minuscule, were talking a couple that are 500 and a couple that are 1000. I really want to solve this, bad credit is a nightmare that I wish never happened  <response>: The good news is since you only have 10K saved up, unless you are extremely aggressive saving over the next couple months you will not be in a position to buy a house come December. This means you have time to work on improving your credit! Step one is paying off the collections, as that would be a massive red flag to anyone looking into giving your a mortgage. After that, just pay off your cards in full every month and dont miss any other payments, and your credit will go up. During that time keep on saving up as well until you have enough for a 20 down payment, plus another 10-20K as an emergency fund in case something breaks after buying the house. 