he After years of never really focusing on it, I decided to fix my credit. The process really started in Feb, with scores in the low 500's. At that time, I had just one credit card from Credit One Bank and an auto loan with a 28% interest rate, with a balance of $3800. Have been an authorized user on a family member's card, with no utilization and $10K limit. Have a loan to family, and pay $300 a month on that. Income is at $63k, and recently got a part-time job to help pay down debt and fund a side business.
The first step was getting all my collections paid and off the credit report. I had 7, and all but one are gone. The total amount of those collections was close to $5500 Have one major car loan that was defaulted on in 2014 with Wells Fargo. After trying to settle with them, they decided to just charge it off as paid in full, and send me the tax forms at the end of the year. Still waiting for that to update on my report. There is one 30 day late from a personal loan in 2012. Other than that, my credit report was kind of thin.
In March, opened another card with Credit One. This is the Platinum, with no annual fee. Expecting to keep this open, and currently has a limit of $500, and keep the balance around 30% utilization.
In April, things started to pick up. Several collections fell off, and scores jumped. Hopped on the forums here, and started to figure out what to do for next steps.
Last Friday, my Transunion score hit 685, ex 628, eq 635. It was time for an app spree! Upgrading the car was the #1 priority. Got pre-approved for $20k at 8% with Summit Credit Union, who I've been with for 3 years for checking and savings. Next step was trying for additional lines of credit. Sent out around 10 apps-AMEX, Chase, Discover, Overstock, Nordstroms, Toyota, Wayfair, Capital One, and a few others. Out of that round, Discover gave me a secured CC offer which I turned down due to not being able to verify SS number, Capital One Platinum with a $300 limit, Overstock with $1k, Nordstroms at $300. Still waiting to hear back on Toyota and Wayfair. Shot down by AMEX and Chase due to the loan with Wells Fargo not being settled. Was happy with that to start, but a little bummed I didn't land a card I could really build with, other than the Cap One. So, I decided to try Summit again. Got the same loan processor that worked with me on the car loan, and after a quick chat, he approved me for a $2k limit!! I am stoked! It's a reward card, with 16.5% interest rate.
Lesson out of those apps, try your local credit union first, before going to the big boys. Once that Summit Card grows a bit, and my scores go up, I'll be in a much better position to land a card I've had my eye on for some time.
After being stressed out about finances for far too much of my life, things are finally looking up. Plan on paying down my loan aggressively, and growing those cards over the next few years. Overstock is going to see a lot of use in the next year, as I'm replacing all my furniture. Cap One will hopefully be upgraded as soon as possible, going to put a lot of use on that one, and PIF a few times a month. Same for the Nordstroms card. Overstock, will be taking advantage of their 0% rate, and keeping a balance on that til the car loan is paid down to a better level. Summit card will be my everyday spender and PIF monthly. It the Garden til the end of the year, but might come out to try refinancing the car loan at some point if my score improves.
Hope this gives some inspiration for those starting their journey! Will be updating this thread in the future.
