Brief vacation from repair

[Jamex]

Hi guys,

I'm guessing some other folks have been in this position before too, but I feel like I've let myself burn out a bit. Over the past few weeks I've been here a couple times a day, and have pulled my own EX score almost every day (since I have a membership with Experian). And what I realized this morning was, I've actually hit all my most important credit goals this year (the ones that had to do with increasing my CLs and reducing interest rates). I've added almost 10k in available credit across 4 new prime cards, refi'd my car to a way lower rate & payment, landed a great new apartment without a co-signer, and gotten my scores solidly into the 670s at all 3 bureaus.

I'm by no means done, but I realized I need a break. Last night I was prowling this board and creditpulls for hours, and I realized that right now the only thing I actually need is time - time for my newest accounts to age, time for my baddies to weaken and eventually die - and time in my life for something other than credit repair.

So, for the next 30 days, I'm not going to log in here or on any other credit forum. I'm going to enjoy buying a few things I've been waiting on (and paying them off promptly!), enjoy going to the beach for the first time this summer this weekend, and generally just enjoy life knowing that I've got the purchasing power I need and that I'm not throwing money away on insane interest anymore. I'll be back to keep working on my own journey, and share what I can with anyone who's working on their own.

Thanks for listening, and see you all next month!

[baller4life]

I absolutely understand the burn out thing. Sometimes all that is left to do is just let things marinate. Go enjoy LIFE!!!

[ezdriver]

Great decision. You have earned a break. Enjoy your sabbatical ... we'll still be here.

I absolutely do no obsess of my credit. I got it where it needed to be to accomodate a few financial things [buying a house, refnancing a car, etc.] so I'mm ok with checking my credit just a couple of times annually. I come here mostly trying to help others as I have experience a great deal of stuff that folks are currently experiencing and seeking help.

All the best.

[MissMoni223]

YES, I absolutely LOVE it, you know when you need a break!!! Live, Laugh, Love!

[Anonymous]

Congrats on reaching most of your goals. I'm new and obsessed and I hope someday to be in your shoes!

[New_Beginning]

Enjoy your break!  

[elim]

Since becoming OCD with my credit i have neglected the gym. I'm 2 days into my bronze spade so i took the day off and am building a new nutrition/workout schedule. Congrats on the rebuild and don't forget to include the gym in your time away

[kjel]

Enjoy the break. I took some time off last year after getting pretty much everything I could up to that point resolved or worked out. Time has been the biggest healer of my scores. I just concentrated paying every obligation I had on time. Now I have a solid 24 month on time payment history and working on my last few items which I am down to one and that is just waiting on a court order to be signed.

Getting your credit back in shape takes a lot of work, often at the expense of other areas of your life.

[antosanc]

Taking a break is necessary!  I was bordering opn obsessive cumpulsiveness byi checking scores and reports, not only from FICO but each of the individual CRB's , then those third party houses that are basically highway robbers...more on that later..   I started my credit repair in March after trying to secure a HELOC for of all purposes to reduce my debt...I was denied;  that was my wake up call:  Equifax: 701, Experian: 587, Transunion: 558.  I can't even tell you why Equifax score was that high, but the bottom line was that I had problems and I needed to be proactive in restoring my credit!  I pulled my FICO scores, and that's where I should have stopped.  I had small collections due, inquiries, high balances, hig utilizations, low credit...UGLY.

Soi I started doing research on startegies to get thgis under control...I had to deal withthe collections.  I found a web-site for a company called Lexington Law, they provide sample letters to appeal to the creditors to dispute inquiries and collections.  So I downloaded the template, adjusted the language and sent them off...thank God, they agreed and that was that.  Then I needed to hoit the inaccuracies and inquiries.  I kept a pretty good pace with the certified letters and was able to resolve a few disputes that cleared up a few inquiries and some late payments.  All the while, nmind you I was making streaady payments now.  I called the credit card companies and requested a reduction in interest rates...all did.  then I made a large payment on one credit card from my savings account.  I was able to increase my CLI on my Amex and Citi cards without hard pulls.  Since Iwas an authorized user on a cCC with my wife and we had a large nbalance in it,,,I deleted my name from that account.  All that juggling and my utilization dropped tremendously.  Now my scores are: 

Equifax: 722, Experian: 734, Transunion: 733. 

And that is where I should have left it and just kept monitoring my scores under Equifax/FICO.  But I went to Score360, Freecreditscore.com, Freecreditreport.com and Myscore.com.  All free trial subsriptions...HA!!!  They all nail you and charge you anyway, ebven after you call to cancel, and when you call back, they just tell you that you did not read fine print and that they cannot reverse charges.  So now I am in dispute with all these charges to the tune of about $65, fortunately it is only on one CC (FNB_Omaha), so I am dealing with only one dispute department, and the have been great so far. 

I learned a lot from the credit alerts and monitoring serve trhiouygh FICO/Equifax.  So now I willl religiously check my scores every 6=months, I will wait until September when many of my inquiries will drop off and then pursue a loan.

Stick with FICO and ignore the other companies, in my opinion, they are crooks!  I think I was lucky, my credit woes were surmountable in a relatively short time, other situations that people are in can be more difficult to rebuild.  But I learned that only I can be accountahble for my credit, all those people who saif that I needed to pay someone to do it were wrong.  They cant do it any better.  It is all about having a clear strategy (there are so many resources out there)...but most of all it is about time, pay on time and in time, your score will increase.