No BK, but otherwise I am right there in the same boat with you. For me it wasn't a medical issue per se, it was an issue with self medicating and spending every dime I had to do so to the point of wrecking my credit for many years. My long spell of gardening was simply due to the fact that nobody would loan me a plugged nickel. I had no choice.
Landing here it seems is a life changing event for many people. Congratualtions on your Journey!
And... Cap1 sucks!! 
@pizza1 wrote:**Mods, couldn't decide where to put this because it is "credit card" related, but could also be placed elsewhere. I apologize, Please move if needed
**
its funny how I think back to many moons ago( well even just like 10 yrs ago), and I had no idea the concept of "gardening", or anything else CC related. In the 28 years that I've had credit, I've actually only gone on 3 credit app sprees, starting out at age 20, then like 11yrs ago age 34, and then last yr during rebuilding. I didn't even know I was gardening with years and years between credit apps. I just never thought too much about it because I already had every cc I ever wanted, and that ultimately sent me into a BK7 last year.
I had no idea how to use credit responsibly. I would spend like no tomorrow, and virtually all 22 CC's I had were maxed out and I'd just pay minimum payments monthly on all. I didn't have the income at the time to support them or pay them off. So, I just kept spending and spending, (the real underoot was I was compensating for my others struggles in life, and shopping made me feel better). I never had to ask for cli on any of my cards because they would give them to me freely all the time, they loved me because I carried balances every month for YEARS!!!! It truly makes me sick to my stomach to know how much of my hard earned money went to interest payments monthly.
Fast forward to 2013...I was so far in debt and then a medical problem hit, I had no choice but to file BK7. That practically wounded me for life until..... I stumbled onto these forums, and my life was forever changed!!! If I had found these forums years ago, even despite the medical issue, I more than likely would have never filed bk because I would actually known how credit is suppose to work. I'm addicted to this place... I've learned so much... Like gardening, sp, getting cli vs apping for another card (HP) to help with util etc...I'm obsessed with keeping a 1% util reporting to the CRA and I PIF all my cards. ( I'm sure the cc peeps are very disappointed in the fact that I didn't go back into cc debt after bk. I'm sure they were banking on that and the interest, probably the only they gave me credit so soon again, lol!)
Its so funny now because I know so much about credit and how it works, the other day my brother( who is a lawyer) was griping to me about his Amex card and that he hasn't had a cli in like 4 yrs. I told him, "go online right now, request 3x your limit and you'll get it". He was like really? How do you know? I'm like.... Trust me, I didn't rebuild from a bk7 In less than a yr without knowing a few tricks, lol. So he did, and of course it worked and did the happy dance, then I told him lots of other things as well... He even got approved for Diners club $40k. Then I told him about this forum
So, I have a long ways to go until my BK is off my reports (9 long yrs), but the knowledge I have now will never ever put me back into that position again!! I learn new things here practically everyday!! So when it comes time later down the road to actually be back in with a prime lender like Chase, Amex, citi , and Discover.... I will know so much about those companies and all the tricks to the trade. I'm so fearful of carrying a balance that as soon as I buy something, even groceries, I come straight home and pay it off and I feel so relieved when I do that too!! I do not ever want to be in that position again. I now don't charge anything frivolous that I know that I can't pay off before the statement cuts to a $0 bal. I've done extremely well rebuilding, but more importantly I'm treating credit like it should be, and not overextending myself.
So sorry for the very long winded post, and most of you will click on it, see how long it is, and bypass it, a few will read to the bottom. I may have my little tantrums and rants about cap one and synch every now and then, but I'm telling you I'm forever grateful to this forum and vast knowledge of the members, and the ones who have helped me so much. We are all in this credit journey together
Great, inspiring story! Yes, you do learn a lot here and it IS addicting. My story is that I just never HAD much credit in my name. Just a Chase card long time ago that was through Paypal that I closed, I was co-signer on a car loan with Wells Fargo, and then a mortgage in my name only which ended in foreclosure three years ago (long story in itself). I let my husband do everything, mistake, and just a couple of years ago began taking on my own credit at almost 50 years old! So, I look at it as I'm building and rebuilding.
@pizza1 wrote:**Mods, couldn't decide where to put this because it is "credit card" related, but could also be placed elsewhere. I apologize, Please move if needed
its funny how I think back to many moons ago( well even just like 10 yrs ago), and I had no idea the concept of "gardening", or anything else CC related. In the 28 years that I've had credit, I've actually only gone on 3 credit app sprees, starting out at age 20, then like 11yrs ago age 34, and then last yr during rebuilding. I didn't even know I was gardening with years and years between credit apps. I just never thought too much about it because I already had every cc I ever wanted, and that ultimately sent me into a BK7 last year.
I had no idea how to use credit responsibly. I would spend like no tomorrow, and virtually all 22 CC's I had were maxed out and I'd just pay minimum payments monthly on all. I didn't have the income at the time to support them or pay them off. So, I just kept spending and spending, (the real underoot was I was compensating for my others struggles in life, and shopping made me feel better). I never had to ask for cli on any of my cards because they would give them to me freely all the time, they loved me because I carried balances every month for YEARS!!!! It truly makes me sick to my stomach to know how much of my hard earned money went to interest payments monthly.
Fast forward to 2013...I was so far in debt and then a medical problem hit, I had no choice but to file BK7. That practically wounded me for life until..... I stumbled onto these forums, and my life was forever changed!!! If I had found these forums years ago, even despite the medical issue, I more than likely would have never filed bk because I would actually known how credit is suppose to work. I'm addicted to this place... I've learned so much... Like gardening, sp, getting cli vs apping for another card (HP) to help with util etc...I'm obsessed with keeping a 1% util reporting to the CRA and I PIF all my cards. ( I'm sure the cc peeps are very disappointed in the fact that I didn't go back into cc debt after bk. I'm sure they were banking on that and the interest, probably the only they gave me credit so soon again, lol!)
Its so funny now because I know so much about credit and how it works, the other day my brother( who is a lawyer) was griping to me about his Amex card and that he hasn't had a cli in like 4 yrs. I told him, "go online right now, request 3x your limit and you'll get it". He was like really? How do you know? I'm like.... Trust me, I didn't rebuild from a bk7 In less than a yr without knowing a few tricks, lol. So he did, and of course it worked and did the happy dance, then I told him lots of other things as well... He even got approved for Diners club $40k. Then I told him about this forum
So, I have a long ways to go until my BK is off my reports (9 long yrs), but the knowledge I have now will never ever put me back into that position again!! I learn new things here practically everyday!! So when it comes time later down the road to actually be back in with a prime lender like Chase, Amex, citi , and Discover.... I will know so much about those companies and all the tricks to the trade. I'm so fearful of carrying a balance that as soon as I buy something, even groceries, I come straight home and pay it off and I feel so relieved when I do that too!! I do not ever want to be in that position again. I now don't charge anything frivolous that I know that I can't pay off before the statement cuts to a $0 bal. I've done extremely well rebuilding, but more importantly I'm treating credit like it should be, and not overextending myself.
So sorry for the very long winded post, and most of you will click on it, see how long it is, and bypass it, a few will read to the bottom. I may have my little tantrums and rants about cap one and synch every now and then, but I'm telling you I'm forever grateful to this forum and vast knowledge of the members, and the ones who have helped me so much. We are all in this credit journey together
It wasnt that long But I'm a reader so this wasnt a big deal to me. Very inspiring story, thanks for sharing! What I wish is that my parents, wonderful people, actually gave me some kind of guideline for credit management. I also feel like this should be taught in schools bc its so frickin IMPORTANT. Thank goodness for this website. Congrats on your amazing progress so far
great post, so you told your brother about us, should we be on the lookout for a pizza2 or is he more of a calzone or a pasta-dish 