I'm getting ready to look for an apartment, but I'm nervous. I've got proof of income and references from my 'day job', and my current landlord is going to give me a good reference as well...but...credit. ugh.
Once upon a time, I had a credit score of 750, so I never had to worry about credit checks. I don't know what my score is down to now (I'm kind of putting off looking, although I know I'll have to sooner or later). There are two problems. One, I am carrying the maximum balance on my credit card.
Two (and this is the biggest problem), I need to somehow fight fraudulent charges resulting from a gym membership, but I have no idea what to do. I canceled the membership almost a year ago, and I just recently realized that they've been continuing to bill me all this time...until I hit my credit limit and they were unable to keep billing my card. I contacted the billing and membership dept for the gym and was told that they never received my cancellation letter...which is BULLSHIT. I made absolutely sure that I did the cancellation process exactly by the book. They are outright lying so they can keep collecting $ from me. No surprise, since this gym chain is notorious for being dishonest, ripping people off and conveniently "not receiving" cancellation notices. Again, I should have known better.
I don't know what to do now. Can I dispute the CC charges from the gym, or is it too late since they've been billing me for months and I hadn't noticed or filed a dispute before now?
So, I suppose my questions are twofold. One, what (if anything) can I do about these charges from the gym? If I can dispute them, how do I go about doing that? If I can't dispute them, is there anything else I can do so that I don't have to keep paying bogus charges? Will a dispute bring down my credit score?
And also...what is considered "good credit" as far as apartment rentals are concerned? Is there anything I can do to offset the blemishes on my credit and make myself look more attractive to a prospective landlord? Are they mostly concerned with things like evictions and bankruptcies, or will I totally ruin my chances of getting an apartment by having a high CC balance and what appears to be a delinquent account with the gym? I'm definitely renting from a private landlord and not an apt management company, if that makes any difference either way.
Any help and/or advice would be so much appreciated; I'm feeling really overwhelmed and panicking right now.



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