I want to offer encouragement to everyone who finds themselves trying to repair their credit. I am so thankful that I found these forums and have learned a great deal. I started subscribing to my FICO in September 2015. At the time I had a Chapter 13 that had just been discharged in August. I had no credit at all because I followed the rules of my plan for 5 long years. I had several negative accounts listed from my bankruptcy all showing negative information on my credit report. Some of the information was incorrect (wrong type of Bankruptcy, wrong balance, charge off instead of Chapter 13 etc ). The credit bureaus do make mistakes often. I started disputing the information that was wrong and my rebuilding began.
I needed a new car and was turned down based on my dismal credit score at the time. My brother was kind enough to offer to co-sign a loan for me at his credit union (thank you GTE Financial). We got the loan at 4.75 percent and I started making payments. I then applied for 2 credit cards and got my first 2 Capital One cards. I can't say enough good things about this company. I burned them in my bankruptcy and they took another chance on me. I also opened a Fingerhut account. I made the payments on all of these accounts on time. My credit score slowly improved. Along the way I kept disputing information that was wrong on my reports sometimes multiple times until they got it right.
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I often wondered if utilization made that big a difference. I can truthfully say it does so be careful. When I began my rebuilding effort my scores were as follows:
Equifax 590 Trans Union 553 and Experian 606. I had utilization on my cards at about 85%. I decided I wanted to buy a home because rent in my area is really expensive.
My dad passed away in June of this year after a long battle with cancer. He left me a small amount of money. It was enough to pay off my credit cards and 1 installment loan I had. My new credit scores as of today are as follows: Equifax 660 Trans Union 656 and Experian 645. I gained around 70 points in 9 months and most of it in the last couple of weeks as I paid down my credit card balance. I left my accounts open but paid the balance down to about $25 on each.
I applied with the USDA for a mortgage passed my pre-screening check and mailed off the real applicaton on Friday. They have started working on my application and I hope to own a home before the end of this year. I am so excited but nervous that they will turn me down. Before paying down my credit card balances my mortgage credit scores were between 595 and 640 depending on which bureau.
The last remaining negative on my credit will fall off in February 2017 when my public record disappears.I hope to see another signifacant boost to my score when that happens.
You can rebuild so don't give up. It takes time and tons of patience but it can be done.
I wish all of you the best on your journey back to good credit.
