what should I do?

[mackandblues]

FICO 597 with my two credit cards maxed out at $4,500 total but will be making large payments on them in January probably

Also have alot of late payments including 30, 60 , 90, 120 from 2010-2012

One large medical collection from 2011 that I'm disputing but doubt it will be removed

My goals are to increase my score so that I can buy a house fall 2014 or later if I have to and I'm going to be paying everything on time and in January start making large payments on my credit cards.  Should I try and dispute all the late payments?  they are from multiple companies/accounts.  Or should I do good will letters instead?  Thanks!

[notfancy]

If they are legitimate, there isn't much a dispute can do for you. Your best bet is to try and get a pay for delete, where you agree to pay what you owe (or some people have had successes with offering a settlement) in exchange for them deleting the debt from your credit report.

You can try and work with the original credits, especially the hospital, to negotiate a payment arrangement, settlement, or payment in full to get them to recall the debts from collections and get those deleted.

Goodwilling your lates will take a lot of time and tenacity but you should absolutely try doing that as well. You're going to need to pay down those balances by a significant amount if you want to see your scores improve. Lenders might be pretty uncomfortable extending you credit when it looks like you're struggling to manage what you already have.

It might help for you to post what cards you have, along with their limits. Also, post what debts you have, amounts, and length of time they've been in collections (and the date that they first went delinquent) You might get more focused / targeted advice that way from people familiar with those agencies, or original creditors. Good luck to you on your house buying journey!