In February of this year, I decided that I was fed up with bad credit scores and that prompted me to start researching what credit was all about. I found the myFICO forum and became obsessed. I don't think I have stopped reading around on these forums since the day that I found them. As far as my credit, I have matured immensely in regards to personal finance so I believe that it is truely time to work the FICOs to the top and give them permission to stay there.
I invested in myFICO to truely find out what my FICO scores were. They were horrible, just as I had anticipated, but they were a lot higher than they were on Credit Karma. I have done a few things since my start date that I'll list below.
Revolving Accounts:
- I had a Discover It card that I abused and got charged off. Just got approved for the Discover Secured this week!
- I had a Capital One that I abused and had to close. Just got approved for the Capital One Secured this week!
- Both of those accounts are reporting as negative accounts.
- Aside from those two accounts, I am an authorized user on one of my mom's Chase cards (CL $22,300), but I have been thinking about taking myself off due to her keeping the balance higher than I can afford for her to keep it.
- Lastly, I've read a couple times that it is best to have 3 revolving accounts so I was looking into the Bank of America Secured card as well; Any thoughts on this?
Installment accounts:
- I have had a car loan for 2 years now and found out, after reading these forums and understanding, that my installment loan is only reporting to TU and EX, but not to EQ. I'm not sure if that is what is keeping my EQ score down, but it would make sense.
- I have looked into the Shared Secured Loan through Alliant to get something reporting to my EQ account so I may be doing that here soon. Hoping to get the 20-30 point boost that everyone is claiming to have recieved. Maybe..
Collections:
- I've had a collection that was only reporting to EX deleted. I have had a medical collection that was reporting to all 3 deleted. Now, I am down to 3 (all three reporting to TU, EX, and EQ).
- Collection 1: Paid in full and closed back in 2012 (Central States, originally Westar)
- Collection 2: Paid in full and closed last year (Jefferson, originally Verizon)
- Collection 3: Reporting as unpaid and open. I paid it in full a few weeks ago so it hasn't reported paid yet (Convergent, originally T-Mobile)
I know that it says my goal is 650 accross the board, but I can not wait to get my scores all to show 600!
