If I can do it so can you!

Jeff532003 · ‎06-19-2015

A year ago I was sitting around 525. I had one secured cap one card and several old auto loans. 2 clean and the most recent with 2 30 day lates over 6 years. I also had three collections. 2 under 200 and one for 1500. My student loans where in rehab and I have about 15 120 day lates from 5 years ago because you know SL's they put like 10 accounts for the one loan. Anyway a year ago I decide I'm finally getting to a point where enough has aged off that I can really try and get my credit in some kind of shape. I had low expectations but had to start somewhere. I all'do and was accepted for a cap one quicksilver one at 500 and a Journey at 300. Tried Walmart and Amazon and rejected, tried bill me later and no go. So I went to fingerhut and was approved for 500. Figured might as well try getting and got 300. Those to rose quick and in 5 months I had 1700 on fingerhut and 1300 on gettington. A few months later I finally got the shopping cart trick to work for express and VS. (I'm a man but I was taking anything to help). A months or so after that I got J Crew. Around thanksgiving I was up to 620's and decided to try for Amazon again. No go. Then tried discover it. Also a no go. December 6 months is up with cap one so hit the love button. QS up to 1500 journey to 1300. So I waited until after Christmas and applied for AMEX. Approved gold card, feeling lucky tried BJ's MasterCard. Approved 2500. Going s little crazy try for discover it again, approved 750. Woot let's try care credit. Denied synchrony bank hates me. So I figure I'm pretty good right there for a while with cards. By February my score was up to 703. My truck was dying to I figured I finally might qualify for a decent rate on an auto loan. Called my CU and was approved for the best rate of 2.49%. Now I'm really excited. That is an unheard of low rate for me. My last auto loan was 17.9%. So I end up with a nice new Subaru and a 26k loan. My score tanked to 650 but I was okay with it as I knew it would rise again. In March and early April I had some unexpected expenses. I ended up using around 65% utilization of my credit on several different cards. I was paying it down but it was a pain on 3 cards with high interest. So in the beginning for June I got a personal loan with Avant so I now have one payment and a lower rate. It will be paid off in 6 months. Anyway paid off all the cards and my util was down to 3% reporting. I figured what the hey time to try love buttons again. Cap one QS to 3500, journey to 2300. No love from discover, all my commenity cards bumped to 750. Was on overstock looking at mattresses and got the pop up window. Figured why not as I see big limits and approved for 750. Not great but why not. No interest for 6 months. It's already paid off but still.
So on to now, almost the end of June. I decided to try for the Bank of America cash rewards. I really wanted a major bank card and they are offering 100 dollars if you spend 500. Easy for me. So I applied figuring 50/50 shot. Approved 2000 limit. I was pretty happy. I'd also been wanting the venture card from cap one but already had 3 accounts. I finally decided to close my old secured card after 2.5 years. I figured I'd wait month and go for the Venture. Well 10 minutes later I decided to check the pre approval link. Venture popped up as my recommended card which was great as it showed I was now eligible as I only had to accounts open. Decided to go for it and instant approval at 10,000!!!!!!!! I almost choked I was so surprised.
Anyway moral of the story is if your here under a mountain of issues don't think it's not possible to fix it! As long as your willing to try you can! I've been at it for 4 years, slowly for 3 and really working at it for the last one.
Here's my current account list. I will not open any more store cards or ones I don't really want and will close some after 2 years for optimum scoring.
Cap one Journey 2300
Cap one quicksilver 3500
Cap one Venture 10,000
Discover 750
CU branded visa (Élan financial) 500
BJ's MasterCard 2500
AMEX gold no limit. I've purchased over 5 k at once and they authorized it.
J Crew 750
Express 750
VS 750
Kohls 500
Fingerhut 1700
Gettington 1300
Auto Loan 26k
Personal loan 5K

It's really amazing what a year can do.

Anonymous · ‎06-19-2015

This is awesome! People like you give me hope!

Existentialist · ‎06-19-2015

Nice job. Thanx for sharing

taxi818 · ‎06-19-2015

Outstanding and congrats on all the sucess. same situation. except no student loans and no lates, just had 1 old co. and 1 collection 5 years old. got those removed. so now sky s the limit. hoping to hit 740s in next 6 months. will also get a car loan. then i can sit back and let my scores rock. congrats again.

Jeff532003 · ‎06-19-2015

Sorry for all the typo's. Darn iPhone haha. Taxi that is awesome! Depending on your income I highly suggest checking out the capital one and Bank of America pre approval sites to see what comes up. Seeing as you have no recent negatives but little else I'd think you'll get a couple offers for 500-1000 range. 6 months of good work with them and you'll triple that. If you use the clearance section fingerhut can be okay too and they raise limits pretty quickly until you get to that 1700 mark. I don't know many people over that but it's good when your getting going.

Shawndoe79 · ‎06-20-2015

Awesome job

Anonymous · ‎06-20-2015

That's amazing!

WOW! Two questions:

1) Did you find that having so many new accounts, thus your Age of Accounts Average was small (right?), negatively impact your score in any way?

2) I thought you could only have 2 Cap One cards... is it accurate that you have 3?

Really great job rebuilding! Inspires me to keep at it

gdale6 · ‎06-20-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
That's amazing!
WOW! Two questions:
1) Did you find that having so many new accounts, thus your Age of Accounts Average was small (right?), negatively impact your score in any way?
2) I thought you could only have 2 Cap One cards... is it accurate that you have 3?

Really great job rebuilding! Inspires me to keep at it

You can only have 2 rebuilders but I am hearing you can 5 cards with them overall and maybe even more you just wont get an opening bonus if you have more than 5 open at the time of app.

Jeff532003 · ‎06-20-2015

Only 3 personal cards. I called about the venture a while back and the rep said I'd have to close one of my others to open it. You may be able to have business cards on top of that. I haven't tried.

Also no my AAOA wasn't impacted to badly as I have account all the way back from 2000. Student loans and car loans from that far back. I think I'm at 4.5 years right now.