Greets My Situtation and ?'s

I live in the great state of New Jersey. Prior to comming across this fine site I had some employment issues causing me to not pay off some credit cards and to settle others for less than the agreed upon amount.

Over the last 11 months my credit improved where I obtained new cards with low limits (400.00-1700.00) limits and high interest (20.99) on most of them.

I recently applied for credit and was turned down due to

Serious Deliquency
Recent Deregotatory Public Record or Collection
Frequent Deliquency

so I have asked for my free report due to denials and I am waiting for them to come in the mail.

Using one of the 3rd party report providers my high score is a 633 and my low score is a 611.

This is what I know

1) There are no public records such as Leins or judgements against me
2) I have a Collection Agency that I did pay off for less than full amount that reports as an Open Account.
3)There is one credit card company that I still owe around 200.00 to but they are not requesting payments and are not charging me any interest. They have reported it as charged off
4)Capitol One shows me with a balance of 0 with 30 days late Jan 03. 60 days in Feb, 90 in March, 120 in April and May of 2004, then no data reported to Transunion for June- October of 2004 then in November 2004 they started showing me 120 days late again.

I do have some accounts marked as closed by Creditor but the paystatus is OK and some closed by creditor settled for less than full balance. These have been closed for a over 2 years and I never recieved a form for my taxes showing how much I was "forgiven" and need to report as earnings so I think it is my best interest to let those sleeping dogs lie.

My Goals are as follows

1) Get a new credit card with a lower interest rate I can transfer my current cards to.
2) Improve my credit score so I can improve my chances of geting an apartment if I need to move out of state in pursuit of a better job
3) Improve my credit score enough so that in 2 years time I can qualify for a low interest car loan.

I know I shouldn't have used my current cards as much as I did but I am in no danger of getting in over my head. I will have all the cards paid off in a total of 9 months or less. None of the cards are over 75% utilization

My Questions

1) Is the Paid Collection Account reporting correctly? If not do I write to them first asking them to correct it or do I write to the one credit agency thye report to? They show the account opened 5/2003 Closed 8/2004 and Paid 8/2004

2)How do I convince Capitol One to change what they are reporting? Technically I was 120 days late in May of 2004 but once I paid them off even it it was less than I owed shouldn't they stop reporting as 120 days late?