My Story and My Thanks
My story starts in late-summer of 2001. I was a college student and incredibly young and naive. I worked part-time, went to school full-time and had a social life. Making a measly $15,000 a year working in a grocery store, student loan bills and abhorrent Credit Card companies offering me $5,000 credit card limits was a recipe for disaster. Sure enough, my once hard-nosed way of paying bills on time quickly went by the way-side as that became a virtual impossibility and my outlook on my financial well-being succumbed to the amounting debt I was accruing.
I had to eat, right? I had to put gas in my car, right? I had to buy books, right? I had to pay my phone bill, right? I had to go hang out with my friends for some relaxation, right? All of those things were more important to me than paying my bills on time and that compounding interest quickly got out of control. I was behind in my credit cards and I had no way of surfacing for air. Like many young people, I chose to ignore the problem rather than seek help.
So ignore it I did. And I lived without credit until 2006 when the job I got in the summer of 2002 decided to move me to a new city. Well, I had lived with a buddy of mine who lived in a house his dad owned, so I never had to have my credit ran in order to have a place to live. That was until I moved to a city where I didn’t have friends who’s fathers would rent me a room. Where was I to go? What was I to do?
Did I tell my boss that I couldn’t take this promotion because my credit was so poor and so upside down that no one would even rent me an apartment? I couldn’t do that. I turned to my parents, finally! Mom and Dad consolidated all my debt. Put it in once nice little chunk and I still pay them even ‘til today. It was bad…
I moved to a new city, dad co-signed with me so that I could get the apartment and there I was, living life in a new city, blowing all my cash that I was making because of this fantastic raise I got. Man, I just can’t learn my lesson, can I? At least I’m not creating any new bad debt…
I became dedicated to my job. 100%, absolutely became a corporate man. I lived, breathed and ate my company. It was great. I didn’t need my credit because I had a place to live and I made enough to sustain myself that I didn’t have to rely on credit cards and whatnot. But that meant that everything that WAS on my credit report was all that old, paid, negative stuff.
Fast-forward to 2007. I meet the woman of my dreams. She was my neighbor at the said apartment complex. We fell head-over-heels in love and in March of 2008, we got married. My, oh my how priorities change. I was no longer a die-hard corporate man, but a love-struck hubby who wanted nothing more than to stay home with his wifey-poo, who had created many of the same mistakes I had in her late-teens/early-20’s…
In August, 2008, we decided to see where we stood in the credit world, knowing full-well that clean-up was going to be needed but we wanted a house and it was (and still is) a great time to buy! At that time, I hadn’t found wonderful forums like myFICO.com, so I read books and other websites which gave somewhat mixed advice. I pulled my scores… Not good… TU was at 585, EQ was at 562 and EX was at 520.
Prior to reading these forums, I read that first and foremost, DISPUTE EVERYTHING! So dispute we did. I was actually able to get some things deleted. My wife had a lot more on her report due to a previous marriage that really left her in a bind. We were disheartened to say the least and chose to let time be our judge and just do whatever we could with the credit we had.
I never stopped reading, then one fateful day I found this place. At first, just to pull my scores and sign up for credit monitoring but then I saw that wonderful FORUM button and decided to enter. From the advice and help I’ve received from this place, I have raised my scores considerably in the past 7 months! My TU is now 650, my EQ is still hovering at 552, but my EX shot up to 653!
I have one negative mark on my credit in the past two years and it was an unfortunate incident where I was late one-month because my wife and I were getting married, moving into our new place and it just was forgotten. Very regrettable. Only one remaining collection on my account and I’m still waiting to hear back from the CA as I sent them a PFD a month ago.
I wanted to thank all the moderators and contributors in this place for all the amazing work they’re doing to help others who either messed up in the past or who were wronged to begin with. You’re really helping to change peoples lives for the better, and as my wife and I have found out that we’re going to have a child, I know that I’m going to be able to provide my family with our own home some day very soon and I contribute a lot of that to you all here.
Thank you all so much and God Bless!
Starting Score: 469