Totally Messed Up...

Hi,

though I am new to this forum, i've done my share of reading. Here's a quick summary of the problem that i'm dealing with:

Being from Europe, it's been incredibly difficult to establish some sort of credit rating. I accepted an offer from Providian to obtain a Visa back in 2000 and used the card diligently always paying off my balance in full - each month. The rep that answered my phone call upon signing up talked me into purchasing "Credit Protection". Shortly after the events of 9/11 i got laid off and immediately contacted Providian to activate my credit protection. This call was answered positively, they're going to do so. Shortly after my phone call, i received a notification that my Credit Card Account had been sold to another company. I contacted the new company to advise them of my situation, just to get informed that they will NOT honor the Credit Protection plan - for which i had pre paid - and since such plan is also not in their offerings, they're unable to refund the money i paid for the Credit Protection.
Of course, at this time, they heavily appealed to my stubborn European nature and i pretty much told them where they can "shove" their practices.
For the better part of a year, i've been back and forth with the new company, they wanted payment, i wanted correction of the situation with either a refund or honoring the protection plan. Neither happened and they placed their mark on my CR.
My question, since this is still on my CR after all these years, and heavily impacting my CR, what can i do? I haven't heard from the CA in almost 6 years...

Any and all help is appreciated!