Trying to stay afloat

So, I have been reading this board for a couple days now and I think I know what my best route is, but because it seems like a lot of the most informative posts are a bit older, I thought I would start a new thread outlining my case. So here goes!

I have a couple old (old being within the last 2-4 years) collection accounts that have been paid and are reporting accurately. They didn't prevent me from taking out a student credit card and a target card. Life was grand, I kept my balances down, and was planning on purchasing a house in the near future, as soon as my credit score allowed.

Fast forward from 2003 to 2005. Before I started the process of purchasing a home, I decided to rent for one to two more years while I saved up a down payment and got my credit scores gleaming. I made the stupid, idiotic, moronic mistake of sharing a house with a friend I knew had major money management problems. However, the nice person in me said he was holding down a decent job and he was swearing he could handle it. I knew I could afford to help him A LITTLE a COUPLE TIMES if he had problems.

He decided paying rent and utilities is just a plain old silly thing to do, at least on time. He eventually would pay me the principle he owed, but didn't account for the fact that I already had to put utilities and other necessities on my credit cards, thus accruing interest, and overlimit fees, and finally it got out of my reach to even make the minimum payments on everything every month. Everything got way out of control, and I was stuck with him since we both signed the lease with the landlord. Joint and several liability sucks.

Anyway, I refused to renew the lease with him and he moved out at the end of the summer, and I replaced him with 2 additional roommates and can manage the monthly expenses now. I also picked up a second job to pay off my now $7500 in debt reported to the CRA's and the $1300 in tuition I need to pay before I can go back to completing my degree.

Which makes my questions as follows:

1) I am slowly but surely paying off my debts, and I am making a big point to pay the OC, not the CA. We are a few months into this process and some are being reported accurately, some are not. What is the best step to take to make sure these items are recorded accurately or completely removed? There are a total of 15 items being reported and about 1/3 of them are paid off within the last 4 years, more recent than there are old.

2) Although I have every intention of paying my rightful debts, I hate dealing with the CA's and refuse to speak to them. Most of the time I don't even open my mail, unless i want to find out what bill it is this time. People wonder why I always hit the ignore button on my cell phone. Can I get these freaks to stop calling me, and potentially get them to remove the negative information, without worrying about it showing back up as a negative item once I have gotten that particular debt paid off? I can't live a normal life until these things happen.

3) I just read a recent post about CA's calling a cell phone. My cell is in my name and since I don't carry a landline, I can name a hundred different places my number came from. However, I didn't realize this was a billable issue. Is there any action I can take on the CA's for calling my cell phone to begin with?

4) I had ONE credit card that was never late paying for and always paid more than three times the minimum balance until I hit the roommate issue. After that, it was just the minimum balance, but hey, I was paying it. My mom cosigned this account for me with the intention that once my debts were paid off, I would use it for tuition and books only, as a holding place until my tuition reimbursement benefit came through from work and the cycle would repeat. The card expired in September. I didn't even realize this until I went to use the card to make a payment on that $1300 tuition debt in November. I called the 800 number on the back of the card to request a new one, and the customer service agent informed me that because of my recent credit activity the undersigner decided not to renew the account, even though that card was in perfect standing. He suggested that I call someone in the credit to plead my case. Due to my 60-80 hour a week work schedule I have been unable to do so. Does anyone have a better suggestion, since I have read in various places that there are specific depts. I should try to get through to in these cases? Because the account was closed by the creditor, it is showing as a negative in my file, but "this file is scheduled to go into positive status in July 2013." What? I was always on time so shouldn't it be a positive now ANYWAY?

4) What do I do with the paid accounts with inaccuracies? Do I dispute the inaccuracy or the record as a whole? What steps are the best to take to do so?

5) Equifax is the only one not showing any credit history at all. Would it be beneficial for me to apply for credit through someone who only uses Equifax and do some balance transfers or something? Where would I find information on what places pull reports from where, and possibly reviews on the best ones to choose?

Thank you for reading my short novel and hopefully I can get these questions answered so I can start hopping on fixing my credit so I can move on with my life.

 

Bump... I know this is a short novel but I'm sort an idiot when it comes to this sort of stuff and wanted to put all the info out there... any suggestions?