New to Credit

[Pacman2012]

Hi, my name is Paul and I'm new to this whole credit thing.. I'm trying to get my credit started but had a bad start. I know in 2009 when I was 17 I was infuriated with First Convenient Bank and never paid them the $318 I owed them so that's now on my credit report. I went to one of those shady 700 credit repair places but am quickly losing faith that they're handling my situation correctly. I've already paid him the $300 service fee and he claims that report will be off my credit in about 60 more days. I dont know if I should put any faith into that or not but I already paid him so I might as well see. I'm guessing my other option is to contact the collector and see what it would take for them to remove it off of my credit report as I dont want to wait 7 years. I also used to live an apartment with a roomate and after I left I never took my name off of the rent or utility bills. Well now reading my Fico scores it says I have bad payment history which i'm guessing that is what it is attributed to as I have nothing in my name. My scores are 575 EQ and 525 TU. I just applied for a capital one secured card hoping that will bring some type of credit history into the picture on my report. I also plan on leaving my family plan to get my own line once I get my credit scores slightly higher. Any suggestions or help would be deeply appreciated as I am still half way stumbling through this credit ordeal and I don't understand a majority of it.



Thanks in advance,



Paul