I had posted in another thread about how I have been working on fixing my credit. I mentioned I brought my credit up from 630 to 780 in only two months, and somebody asked how I did it. I replied there, but after reading the post I decided I would make a post here so other people can see that YOU CAN DO IT!
Here is the story of how I took control of my finances, credit and catapulted myself into a better life.
I started with these credit scores when I signed up for MyFICO 3B in February:
At dinner one night, my best friend told me about the churning subreddit when I was telling him about how I was looking for a house with my wife. He looked over my report which the mortgage company pulled (it was a full credit report HP) and said I should investigate all my accounts that seemed bad/inaccurate and write letters to the bureaus. In his words "dispute everything!" Well, I wasn't going to dispute everything, but there were some negative factors. So I went home and the next day began the MyFICO 3B.
That same day, I disputed a bogus collection account - ERC was after me for T-Mobile; only $124 from when I ended my contract with them. The thing is I paid it when I closed the account and was mailed a statement. Then I got married and moved and lost the statement. About a month later after getting married I got called by collections, stating I owed them $124. After telling them I owed nothing, I put them on block with Mr Number (an Android app) and never looked back. Fast forward to two months ago, I disputed the collections with all three bureaus. Got mails from all three stating the collections was not a valid attempt to collect debt and they dropped.
I had a Capital One account showing 30, 60, 90 day late showing in my report from a long time ago. Like, 2007. I have no idea how or why, but I reported it to all three bureaus. I got letters in the mail from all of the bureaus stating the account has been removed from my report, and a letter from Cap One stating the account was fraudlent. Then all three bureaus slapped a 90 day fraud alert on my reports. My credit score jumped in one month from 625 FICO to 748 just as a combination of having the collections and lates removed. But it wasn't over yet.
I have a credit card (really the only one I have) with my credit union, the same one I have my auto loan through (for my 2015 Mazda 6.) It was a joint account I opened with my wife about a year before we got married. With only a $2500 credit limit and a revolving balance of about $2000, I walked into the branch and asked for a CLI. They asked 'how much' and I said 'uh, $5000?' After a few minutes the underwriters came back with approved. I hastily paid off a large chunk of it - $1000 - and got excited about using a credit card. I bought my wife a Nintendo Switch on it for her birthday (about a week later) and paid it off immediately. This was before I knew about rewards cards, but it turns out that God had other plans for me, there...
Having recalled my friend telling me about /r/churning, I decided to check it out. Reading about all the crazy offers had me doing a lot of googling. Free money? From creditors? Ha! What a joke! Then I found out it turned out to all be true. When I was a kid my parents took us on a trip to Hawaii thanks to their fervent spending and PIFing on their Alaskan Airlines card (my parents had and continue to have stellar, +820 credit.) So once I found out what was good, I decided the card that most fits my lifestyle was the Amex BCP. I made it a goal to turn credit into a game, and so I started reading the forums here, learning about how to leverage utilization in my favor and about the importance of paying bills on time, something my wife struggles with. And she's in control of our finances and has a credit card phobia...
I talked to my wife about credit cards and the incredible perks. I explain in as reasonable a manner as possible that I can earn us free money just by spending money using credit cards for all our daily shopping and spending. After presenting her with a plan, she agreed to give it a try. So I take control of our finances! I continue to pay down our debt, taking some money out of our emergency fund (hey, fixing credit is an emergency!) and starting to pay off everything I can as quickly as possible. My credit score continues to rise, and I am getting that much closer to applying for that sweet BCP.
So I did the following:
- Applied for a CLI on my Synchrony/Newegg account.
- Applied for Amex BCP
- Applied for Alliant Visa Signature
- Applied for Citi Costco Anywhere
- Applied for Blispay
Here was my final credit profile before I started applying for cards:
Well, it turns out credit score isn't everything. I am shot down by AMEX due to a high number of inquiries and apparently a deeper reporting of my credit history (I have no idea how they calculate it, but my Experian credit score at the time was only 730.) Synchrony/Newegg store card bumped me up from $800 to $5,500 SL. That's a lot of computer parts! Blispay only approved me for $1,000 SL, and after calling in and sending a review to their corporate office, declined raising it higher (why!?) Citi approved me for a $6,500 SL on their Costco Anywhere Signature Visa card, and Alliant declined me for their Signature Visa because CL starts at $10,000, so they approved me for their Platinum Rewards card instead.
I took some of my wife's credit debt and applied it directly to the Alliant 0% APR (with zero fees!) and it reported with a $2k balance (haha). I'm going to farm that card and pay it off in chunks of $350 a month. I'm going to transfer as much as I can from my wife's Discover while continuing to pay it off... I just don't want that massive balance to continue to injure us. So after it reports, I will move more over and pay off a larger chunk, continuing to appear to make large payments. As for the Discover I will continue to pay it off as much as I can each month to chip away at that interest. We'll get there! Remember it's important to eliminate debt ASAP. Once I've gotten rid of that, I expect to see our scores soar once again. 
So for now my credit is bouncing around due to all the inquiries, new credit lines, and new taken on debt. So that puts me at 729 EQ, 747 TU and 713 EX. Time to cultivate those new credit lines!
And that is the story of how I dug myself out of the depths in less than two months.
edit: fixed typos, corrected title.
Amazing story! I think once your accounts age you will be in good shape. Keep pushing.
Score: F8 EQ 609, EX 597, TU 614 (1/17) Current Score: F8 EQ 701, EX 714, TU 689 (12/18)
Amazing! Congratulations!
Inspiring! Thanks for sharing!
