How can I "clean" up my credit rating?

[Megamorph]

I have always had good credit up until about a year or so ago. For some reason, my insurance company denied payment on a simple visit to the doctor. I was too busy (and lazy) to look into it and the doctors office turned it over to collections. I have also been getting bad about not paying my bills on time -- not low on funds, just careless. Anyway, my visa card has reduced my credit limit -- was $15K, now $11k, and a couple of dept. store credit cards terminated my accounts. I applied for a dept. store card a couple of months ago and was declined. I have ordered copies of my credit report from Equifax and TransUnion.

I would like to buy a new home in a few months, but now my credit seems to be screwed. I know it can be repaired, but I don't know all the tricks. Does anyone have any experience with this?

A guy I know had horrible credit. He had many charge-offs, a repo, late pays, etc., but he paid someone (an attorney I think) to clean up his credit. They had almost everything removed. As a matter of fact, the repo (auto loan) now shows that it was paid in full. He recently got new copies of his credit report and everything looks good. He has a small construction company and he was able to purchase two machines ($300,000 in equipment) on credit with no money down.

What can I do to correct my problems so I can buy a new home at a good interest rate?

 

[tm37]

Start here

Dispute EVERTHING that is negitive.

It takes time You have to have everything PAID!

 

[TheGameIs21]

What your friend did was pay for some company to flood the credit reporting comany with disputes that couldn't have been cleared up in 30 days so the reporting company had to remove the disputed information until the flood of disputes could be verified. At the 30 day point, the company your friend payed printed the credit report and gave him a certified copy of it. As soon as the information is returned to the reporting company verifying the debt as accurate, it is put back onto the report.

His repo to paid loan was a fluke. The company that repo'd the vehicle misreported and it is possible that they will catch the fluke and correct it later.

This isn't a personal attack..... You should worry about paying your current debts before acquiring a mortgage. Sounds like you have an issue with handling money. Your original post started as though you were just having problems with a medical bill that you were "to lazy" to do anything about. Then you go into all the other credit card problems you have. If you can't handle a medical payment or some smaller credit cards then how can you expect yourself to handle a mortgage?