my husband was recently the victim of an assault and during his surgeries (about 2 yrs) we got ourselves in huge debt and had a difficult time even paying our bills. however, recently, we received a small settlement and we used it to pay off our debt (since it was accruing large interest due to late payments). now our credit report shows negative points from one credit card company (chase) and we would like to remove it as we are hoping to afford a downpayment for a house very soon and would like to improve our credit score.