One month into rebuilding and seeing the light...

[Anonymous]

I’m only one month into credit rebuilding, and I can’t believe how amazing this forum has been and how much I’ve learned and been helped by it!

In one month, I’ve been able to achieve the following:

2 collections off of my credit report, one by Pay for Delete and one by dealing with the original creditor. I expect to see those vanish when I get my update in 3 days OR by next month.

I’ve also been focused on my utilization and limits on CC’s and achieved the following in one month:

Credit Card #1 (Platinum Cap One)

Limit in April 2015: $300
Balance in April 2015: $302

Limit May 7th 2015: $500 (Automatic limit increase from 6 months on-time payments)
Balance May 7th 2015: $102

Current Limit: $500
Current Balance: $109

Credit Card #2 (QuickSilver Cap One)

Limit in April 2015: $500
Balance in April 2015: $487

Limit May 7th 2015: $500
Balance May 7th 2015: $282

Current Limit: $1500 (Requested CLI, no hard pull)
Current Balance: $288

Utilization and credit:

April 2015 Utilization: 95%
May 7th Utilization: 38%
Current Utilization: 19%

April 2015 Available Credit: $13.00
May 7th Available Credit: $614
Current Available Credit: $1,600

I’ll be paying these down to $50 on each in another 2 weeks!

I still have SO far to go, but I’m so excited to see that I’m having success and working on it! Thanks forum! Hopefully I'll see my scores start to move in the right direction next month. 

[Anonymous]

Congrats !!! The only good thing about rebuilding is it becomes "addicting". Spending time learning about credit, how it works, and how to rebuild, has made me a fanatic (LOL). I'm trying to make improvements on a daily basis, something I never cared about in the past. Best of luck on your journey.

[Anonymous]

I couldn't agree more - it's SO addictive. But, that's a good thing and it's far different then the "head in the sand" approach I took for... oh... my entire adult life. 

[CreditOCDinCali]

I'm new to the credit rebuilding process as well and thankful I found this forum. I'm addicted too; you can tell by my username "OCD" lol

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I couldn't agree more - it's SO addictive. But, that's a good thing and it's far different then the "head in the sand" approach I took for... oh... my entire adult life. 

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Well, to your credit, you had your head in a much better place than mine was....

Congratulations on your progress! As said, it IS addicting. To be honest, I started looking at it as a challenge or game of sorts, personally. Though I know it will help me in the future, I don't have any immediate need to get my score up, but dang it, I wanna see how high I CAN take it. 

The folks here have been more than patient with my idiotic questions, and SO much help!!

Good luck on your journey.....I'll see ya at 700....

[Anonymous]

You're so right (about seeing it like a game). That's been my approach lately and it helps so much. Now, when I have extra money I'm not thinking about what I might buy... I'm thinking, "Hmm... where I could put this money to have the most impact on my credit score...." hahaha and it feels great! You have to treat it like a game so you don't go crazy or feel guilty about how the negatives started. 

Can't wait to be a nice gold member of the 700 club. Baby steps  

[Scupra]

Congrats on your success! You will see better results if you pay card #1 to $0 and card #2 as low as you can. Keep up the hard work!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that advice Scupra! I'll take it and see if I can make that happen in the next two weeks. Maybe you could answer this question for me: 
I also have 2 store cards (low limits, Kohls and Bealls). I opened them 6 months ago, I used them one time, and I paid off the balance to 0 that month and have not used them again.

How often do I need to use them for them to help my score or does it help it enough with them sitting on my report with a 0 balance?

[Scupra]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for that advice Scupra! I'll take it and see if I can make that happen in the next two weeks. Maybe you could answer this question for me: 
I also have 2 store cards (low limits, Kohls and Bealls). I opened them 6 months ago, I used them one time, and I paid off the balance to 0 that month and have not used them again.

How often do I need to use them for them to help my score or does it help it enough with them sitting on my report with a 0 balance?

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No worries! FICO likes to see one card at less than 10% util (but not 0) and all others at 0% util. You don't have to use those cards for them to report. I would use them once every six months or so, just so they don't close them