There was an article in last month's Money magazine about this exact issue. The person who wrote the article had one credit card that she paid off each month - which made it difficult for her to qualify for additional credit.

I'll dig up that article and let you know what her advice was.

With respect to the >30 day payments, I'm not sure what you can do to get that off your credit report, but you might want to be upfront with potential readers of your credit report (including landlords, employers, or mortgage companies) and let them know that will find that blemish on your credit report, and explain what happened.

Zip Code: aschwartz@mdtaxes.com

I would dispute the charge.........you have nothing to lose by doing this.

Zip Code: dr_ericmiller@yahoo.com