in the next couple weeks were going to be paying off the bad stuff on our credit report?

It will likely take a few months for your score to come up once the collection items are shown paid on your credit report. As more time passes you should see your score improve as long as you keep making your car payments on time. I would think you should see some improvement within about 6 months.

Wow, I am impressed! Compliments to you for getting out of debt and repairing your credit. I am impressed because seldom do people ask the appropriate questions BEFORE they make a move. Since you have, lets get more bang for your buck. There are ways to both pay off your debt and get the negatives deleted from your report at the same time. I do have a few questions, for example, are you paying them in full or settling the debts? How old are they? Do you already know your credit score? Is this car and medical debt all you owe? Depending on the answers, I believe, as I said, you may be able to get some of your paid in full negative debts deleted. Feel free to email me. I do this for a living.

just cause you paid of your debt doesn't mean anything, except 'thank for paying your bill'.

lenders look how in general you put money into your debts. there is really no time line on how they can give you a better score. missing a minimum payment is fatal to your score. they don't care if you pay 10 times your minimum balance. they do show you mathematically how your credit score works but its worked out so they make money off you.

so as long as your making payments, and have at least 50% of credit used in each account you owe then you will have a great credit fast. if you have 80% used on any card then lenders will trust you less. it doesn't matter if the average of your debts is 40%, having more then 80% used on any single debt under your name is bad!! your financed or refinanced car from 3 months ago is probably at 95% from the TOTAL balance.

another thing they consider is your total income versus all the expenses that you make monthly. and with payments i mean everything from phone bills to condo fees to car payments.if your payments vs your monthly income exceeds 40%, then your no better then the guy who misses one payment.

Having it payed off helps a lot but it is still a mark on your report. A lot of creditors give you some leeway for medical issues. You might want to write to the credit bureaus (all three) and put a note of explanation in your file.

buying a car may negatively effect your credit score as it impacts what is called debt to income. (DTI)

But with the new credit regulations you should see your score slowly moving up. After 1 year it will have a larger jump. You can still argue the late charges and try to have them removed. I personally used a credit repair specialist and it helped me see a raise in 60pts in 4 months.