I'm writing to share my experience with rebuilding credit. I've read many posts on this site and like some of the comments, they really
do help. I started sadly to say with a 412 credit score that I brought to 640 in over 3 months. Capital One is the best by far.
Love their checking accoun and CC. The credit increase takes very very long to get I think., May - Nov for me. I finally woke up about credit and cleaned
a whole lot of stuff up. For one, I mistakenly paid on two old accounts. Then for the rest - I had old collections from years ago totaling
no more than $1,000. Used the 609 letter, I wiped them out. Disputed errors, and yes there was some, so those got dismissed.
Became an authorized user until my credit was intact then I let it go. My credit is still building, I'm going for a 820 or 850.
One thing I can say in this journey is that your realize your CREDIT SCORE IS CONNECTED TO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING
you may want to maintain a stable life. You have to get real with yourself, stop impulse buying and getting sucked into stupid loan
offers with crazy rates that keep you in a loop.
It really started after I discovered Credit Karma was giving me a score 40 points lower than my actual FICO score. I was with CK for
two years when I finally checked with the actual bureaus. I was pissed!! to say the least. Then I got down and dirty started
tracking everything on my credit. I cancelled that account so fast! You then realize credit score reporting is a bit of a rackett.
You have all of these sites offering you your credit score and they are well below your actual FICO.
Yes, it might be Vantage but most lenders use Fico, not all but the majority. So many people are looking at scores that aren't even aware
they are be shown something lower than what they actually had. What got me was their slick websites and marketing.
I also found a great no nonsense book about what credit is really about and how you can take control.
I'm not here to promote the name of the book or the site, but if you want it I can tell you.
I also searched on Youtube. Again, some people are giving out info like saying pay our company $50 and we can clean up your credit.
Where some are telling you about the 609 letter and the inquiry removal letter. Basically google and do your own research. People are
always trying to make a buck off of the clueless. I see why because your credit score is soooooo emotional to us. Lord, I'm sure there
are some that don't even want to look at their credit because they are so intimidated by it. It can be daunting and you can feel so
overwhelmed and people treat you like crap especially when you get rejected on an application.
But you have to begin to pay attention how CC companies make their money off of you. They don't make any money when you pay
your bills on time. As for the bureaus, you'll see one agency take forever to clear a dispute off of your credit when you are completely
correct in the submission. They say 30 days, but you better keep checking back to see if it's done. Meanwhile, that's holding up your house or car or
loan application. Now with this hack at Equifax and learning some top managers dumped stock before the hack should tell you something
righ there.
One credit card - Credit One Bank - that helps you rebuild your credit has some sneaky little rules that can get you seriously in debt if you
aren't paying attention. They limit the number of times you can make payments to the card in one month. You can only do 4. So if you
are trying to take every penny you make here and there to throw on the card, you better hold on to it, then make a large payment or
you will exhaust your 4 attempts which will leave a balance you don't want to report to the bureaus impacting your 30% under usage
you might be trying to maintain.
They also charge $9.99 for the money to be availble the next day. I could careless about trying to use the card the next day, I just
want to pay it down and was restricted. Luckily, I can pay as many times as I want through my bank account as a bill pay.
One benefit - They did give me a credit increase within 3 months of using the card, so that was nice.
Overall, I'm still stiving to 850. All of my collections are gone. Only have a student loan left that is in good standing. Only have two credit
cards both worth $800 in credit and I keep them under 30% if not, then a zero balance. It's fun to see you gain 40 points or more.
Thought I would share my experience...
