I wanted to take some time to impart some wisdom, and share some of my story. As some of you know I've had quite the rough road to travel as I've taken this trip down the school of hard knocks. I was hospitalized for 11 days in 2011 which subsequently went to collections and ultimately caused me to fail a background check for work. This served not only as a wakeup call but ultimately a turning point in my life. I wasn't one who always thought who cares about late payments or collections but due to an ugly divorce I took that stance for a bit. I'm happy to report that I do not anymore, nor will I ever again. credit responsibility is just that, being responsible, growing up, learning from our mistakes and moving forward with our lives in the best way we can (whether it be payment arrangements, minimum payments or whatever you can afford) you owe it to yourself to make it a priority in your life.
There's some of you who may not be at a juncture in your life where you can do these things, trust me, I know how hard it is. When you spend a year living on water and Raman noodles because you can't afford anything else, I've been there. A turning point will come, when it does grab it and hold on to it and accept help when it's given. With the support of a wonderful family/friends/loved ones I grew up, I took on the challenges facing me and trust me, they were many. As you can see in my signature I had a loan pull when I was at my lowest it was hard for me to accept. I began to look around online and came across this forum, and let me tell you this place is one of the best for a reason. The support of my fellow peers as we go through the rough spots in our life or the great moments, we share them together. Without the encouragement, and gentle nudges to help keep us all on track this place wouldn't be what it is today.
I started my journey in 2012 to start paying in full the debt obligations I had, went into payment arrangements with the collection agency that held my 4k medical bill and in general treated my credit repair like a second job. Removing some of the derogatory reporting came easy after I settled/pif'd the debts I had out there. Others were not quite as easy, my medical bill has been paid since summer, the collection agency refuses to do anything to remove it but I will keep trying. At this point my credit report is the cleanest it's ever been, 1 Collection and 1 90 day late reporting which Capital One submitted to the credit reporting agencies to remove. Hovering in the high 600's I began to apply for credit. Keep in mind at this point I had three credit cards a Capital One Platinum, a Capital One Cash Rewards and a Capital One backed Best Buy card. My total credit line was 2300$ which for a lot of you might just be a single card, or a hell of credit limit no judgments either way. I learned that having all my eggs with one lender was not the ideal situation. I started to put what I was learning here to use, I used the shopping trick and was able to score a Buckle card being emboldened by this I applied and was approved for a Discover IT. I tried for a Chase Slate, seeing that was supposed to be the easiest one to get with my scores DENIED. I called into recon and explained the entirety of my credit report to the very nice lady and explained I would like to start a relationship with Chase, she pulled an underwriter on and they approved me for 2500! At the time my biggest credit line to date, I closed out the summer by picking up a Paypal MC which ended my summer by seeing a credit limit of 6k.
At this point I joined the "Garden" (which I highly recommend doing) to let my cards mature and let my payment history grow in September my Best Buy card was transferred to Citi and I rolled the dice and called into their 'Big Ticket' department (since my credit limit was 500) with nothing to lose. That conversation (after talking to an underwriter) saw my limit go up to 5k on that card. Fast forward to the end of the year, it was CLI time as well as time to see how well the garden strategy worked out as my credit scores had recovered and were actually at their highest ever. Discover auto CLI'd me 200$ I reconned and was able to take the card up another 1300 by doing so. Paypal told me they couldn't approve me for a CLI yet my account went up by another 1000 when I logged into it. I then was able to hit the luv button my C1 cash rewards and scored another 500.
I closed out the year by applying for a corporate Amex Green as per my employers desires (haven't gotten the approval yet) at that point I decided to apply for my own, and was approved for it. It was then that DCU which has been rushing me hardcore to bring my car loan over so I could get 1.99% started to get my attention, I got approved for the loan as well as a Platinum Visa with them (a 10k limit!) my first five digit limit. I hit up Bank of America and was approved for 4k for their cash rewards card. I put in a CLI request with Chase at this point and asked for 10k, they gave me the 7-10day response, the next day I logged into my Slate and found it was at a 10k limit. Since I was on a roll I wanted to really close out the year with a Blue Cash Preferred in my wallet, I got approval on that last night for a credit limit of 2k (no complaints there) just good to finally have my foot in the door at AMEX that was the end goal for me.
In closing, follow the advice given here, it really does work. I'm sitting at 41k in credit a far cry from the 2300 of only a few months ago, don't be discouraged you can find success.
Off to the garden for me until Dec 2014 I think then either a mortgage or maybe I might add a few Citi cards to my wallet... maybe that Chase Sapphire Preferred I keep dreaming about...
One final piece of advice, Credit is a Journey not a Race, take your time and enjoy the scenery while you are doing it.
JP 
TU:552 | EQ:561 | EX:567 | Starting Score [LP from 08]
Very motivating! Thank you very much for sharing. See you in the garden.
Discover IT $17k / US Bank Ace (VSig) $13.5K / US Bank Cash+ (VSig) $13.5k
You have come along way and judging by that last spree that i'm not suppose to know about ROFLOL
Bravo well done
NOW BACK TO THE GARDEN 
@myjourney wrote:You have come along way and judging by that last spree that i'm not suppose to know about ROFLOL
Bravo well done
NOW BACK TO THE GARDEN
Couldn't have done it without all the advice that's found here, you and Lexie have helped me a ton as well and for that I'm thankful.
JP