I had 8 years of excellent, clean credit history. Back in 2008/2009 my job went bust, and I fell behind on car, 2 credit cards, and some student loans. It dinged me for 3-5 months, depending on the line item.
I caught up everything by August of 2009, both cards got closed but paid in full, and I waited awhile. In May of last year, I app'd and got a Capital One, $500 limit, then up to $700 on the Credit Steps program. I was also approved for a car loan. I've run charges on Cap One every month and PIF constantly, and have kept everything else up to date or paid ahead.
I started getting AmEx offers, and I told myself that would be my reward for getting back on track. I got an alert that my EQ was up to 741 last week (what a climb from the low 600s before I found MyFico!), and realized I'm at the 1 yr mark for my CapOne inquiry, with none since then....I pulled the trigger on a Classic tonight and was instantly approved.
Feel like I finally made it back to where I was. 
Thanks to everyone on here who continues to give such great advice. To anyone struggling, don't give up....you'll get there.
Starting Score: TU: 550 EQ: 556 (pulled 6/2010)
what amex card did you get approved for?
Thanks, all!
I got the Classic for now. I was pre-approved for the Gold, but it didn't have anything additional I was really interested in....the Premier Rewards interested me, but since I wasn't pre-approved for that one, I didn't want to push my luck so I played it safe and just used the INQ on the Classic.
@KeepSwimming wrote:I had 8 years of excellent, clean credit history. Back in 2008/2009 my job went bust, and I fell behind on car, 2 credit cards, and some student loans. It dinged me for 3-5 months, depending on the line item.
I caught up everything by August of 2009, both cards got closed but paid in full, and I waited awhile. In May of last year, I app'd and got a Capital One, $500 limit, then up to $700 on the Credit Steps program. I was also approved for a car loan. I've run charges on Cap One every month and PIF constantly, and have kept everything else up to date or paid ahead.
I started getting AmEx offers, and I told myself that would be my reward for getting back on track. I got an alert that my EQ was up to 741 last week (what a climb from the low 600s before I found MyFico!), and realized I'm at the 1 yr mark for my CapOne inquiry, with none since then....I pulled the trigger on a Classic tonight and was instantly approved.
Feel like I finally made it back to where I was.
Congratulations! I love hearing successful rebuilding stories. They're so encouraging for those of us who are working on our own rebuilds. Best of luck to you from here on out!
