When you got the new cards. It hurt you, but give it time and it'll help you.
If you ever make a late payment, call the card company. They'll usually do 2 or 3 "forgiveness" in a rolling year. Once they take that off, it won't reflect on your credit score. But make sure you take care of it immediatly before they have time to report it to the credit agencies.
Bill payment is my friend as well. I set it up at the beginning of each month. I can't do the monthly thing because each thursday is a different date each month, and that's payday.
But the process takes 3 days total. So I set it up for wens, processes on thurs, and friday morning the money comes out. If I set it up for thursday it won't come out till monday because of the weekend.
But it's a total lifesaver, and it keeps me from paying late fees. The bank has also set up e-bill, which they'll recieve a copy of my bill, with balance, min due, and date. So I don't have to check every credit card website.
For me, as long as I don't see the money, I don't want to spend it. That's why FSA with the insurance is great and so is 401k plan, they already get the money before I even see the paycheck.
So many banks are offering free online banking... less work for them. For us it saves us about 10$ a month by doing it all online. So if your bank doesn't do it, try to find another one that does it all.
Ohh and more than the min payment definatly helps, even if you can't pay the balance in full.
We've shredded several high balance cards just to get them paid off, and when they send you a new one when the old one expires, never activate it. It'll also help prevent fraud.