Happy Dance!
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
Refer to that thread for a recent milestone! 600 Club! My EQ FICO is now 628 (Highest it has ever been) and I am pretty sure one of the SW's I got (I got 2 within 3 hours of each other) was for the deletion of my collection. I am going to go ahead and assume that and try to show some discipline and not order a ScorePower and wait until mid April when TWO of my secured cards age to 1 year.
Starting Score: EQ: 383 2/2011BADDIES (7) : All but one paid in full or settled. GW train to start soon to try to clean up BEFORE 2016-17 when they would otherwise fall off.
First Premier Bank: $0 (Settled in Full) Charge-Off. CA was ARM.
MidlandMCM: $0 (Settled in Full) Collection. From an old T-Mobile account.
Capital One: $0 (Settled in Full) Charge-Off. CA was NCO.
Verizon Wireless: $0 (Settled in Full) Collection. No Collection Agency on CR.
Farmer's Furniture: $140 Collection. No Collection Agency on CR. (Bastards)
Capital One: $0 Charge-Off. Strange, shows $0 but no CA has been on file ever.
HSBC Bank: $0 Charge-Off. Assigned to Nobody. PRA Deleted. $414 debt hanging in the air for now.
Walking around best buy today considering a TV purchase for my "office" room for the wall and they have some really nice Samsung 240hz LED's on clearance. Lady said she can give me 10% off at the register and another 5 if I apply for their credit. I laughed and said "Look lady, there's no way I am getting approved for anything, but I'll take the 5% off for a hard pull."
She runs my credit, approved for $500. Baby steps are still steps. I am SO pumped it's not even possible to describe in text.
I am very inspired by your posts. Congratulations and thanks for sharing!
Starting Score April 2013: 556Thank you very much for the comments! I appreciate it.
After I got approved for the Best Buy card, I was getting ready to ask my buddy to borrow his Kay's card to make a purchase for my wife's birthday coming up. I decided I would just apply on my own to see what happens after being approved for Best Buy and I was approved for $800!
About 10 minutes ago, I took my second stab in 2013 at a Wal-Mart card and was approved! I am officially in the garden until these age and get some CLI's but man am I STOKED! Every single sentence/post/response/letter on these forums has paid off immensely and I honestly would not be in this position at all without the wealth of knowledge present on these boards! Thank you all very much!
Just read through your journey. Sounds like you are doing all the right things! Huzzah!
Let me note that I also sent a $700 deposit to Capital One to increase my total Secured line to $1000. It took a few days and then they froze my account to verify the $700 was from my bank and it wasn't fraud but not so bad overall.
The approval of the Best Buy card forced me into an App Spree sooner than I would have liked but I figured I would ding the inquiries and AAoA now while I have the chance to pick up some good builder cards and just hit the garden for the next year or two.
Best Buy: $500
Wal-Mart: $500
Kay Jewelers: $800
Amazon: $600
PayPal Smart Conect: $300
Following the App Spree, I closed my 2 First Progress cards as they were both secure and had the worst AF's. In advance of receiving the check from them, I applied another $600 to my Capital One secured, bringing the total available credit on that card to $1,600. My "idea" with this is to maintain the $1,600 line for 6 months to a year from now and push Capital One for an unsecured card in that amount or hell even less, as long as my own capital isn't tied up in it anymore. I was considering putting the extra deposit on the US Bank Secured, but the process is actually more than it's worth: Requiring snail mail and basically an essay type application on why I want the increase.
I am paying you yearly to give me access to my money and better my credit. Don't ask me anything when I send you MORE of MY money to go on the card. Due to Capital One's (nearly) painless process, I chose to just up the limit there. I may bump it up to an even $2k soon and see what happens down the line. Worst case? I close them and get a $2,000 gift in the mail. I say nearly painless because they froze my account and made me call my bank 3-way to verify the deposit because it was too large ($700). Anyway...
So now I have all of those and the US Bank Secured and Capital One Secured. My little spree cost me just around 20 or so EQ FICO points, but it wouldn't have bothered me if it was 40 points. I needed to establish credit somewhere so I can be where I want to be when the time is right. This was a golden opportunity to get the "small/builder" cards everyone is after (minus Kay's and PayPal) but I love Amazon, Best Buy now matches them so that's a score...and Wal-Mart gives a free TU FICO for going paperless. I am now holding the sub prime cards everyone is after and I couldn't be happier. I will update in a few weeks or so when the dust settles completely and my FICO factors in my new available credit amount.