I don’t think the increase is related to the deposit you were approved for as Capital One states that you may earn credit line increases based on your payment and credit history. My Capital One did get a lot of usage at the beginning as this was my only card back then, and I always paid on time. I think doing these things helped me get an increase, but who knows, I’ve heard other people doing the same and not getting one…
You should try to get a 2nd credit card. You already know that Capital One does not graduate, so you might as well get a second card that will grow with you and when you are ready to close Capital One, you’ll have a 2nd card you can keep with some history as well. If you get a 2nd secured card, get one that will graduate like the ones offered by BOA and Citi (though these are not as easy to get). I’ve heard mixed things about Wells Fargo secured cards, some get unsecured, some don’t. You might be able to get an unsecured CapOne card a few months down the road…a store card might help build some history, and they’re usually easier to get. Having so many collections and a low credit score might make it difficult for you to get approved right now, so you can wait a few months.
Some collection agencies report to the 3 bureaus, some report to 1, some to 2, so you will not necessarily have the same amount of collections on the 3 reports.
In regards to your medical collections, I would try to contact the original debtor first and try to negotiate with them. If the accounts are old, they most likely will not have the records any more. Does the Bank of America collection appear as a charged-off? If so, you will have to deal with a collection agency. It’s already 5 years old, so you could just wait for it to fall off your reports.
Most importantly try to negotiate “Pay for Deletes”, meaning that rather than updating your collection to “Paid”, you will pay them in exchange to have the tradeline deleted from your reports. A Paid collection will not improve your credit score, it will look better if a lender actually pulls your report and sees that you have paid them, but in terms of scoring, a paid collection is the same as a non paid one.
Start by paying the collections with lower amounts first, for better results, offer the full amount in exchange for having the accounts deleted. For higher amounts, you can try to negotiate a lower payment. Google “Pay for Delete” and you’ll find a lot of info on this.