Things do get better...

[danny4l]

Haven't posted in a while but just wanted to post some good news.

Learned about credit the hard way back in 2007/08 when I spent recklessly and then went on disability.  I didn't know how I was going to get out of that mess but I worked my butt off to pay the bills and build my credit while envying other people who were in a better position than me.  I started off with just one Capital One secured card in 2011 but I worked hard and responsible with that.

Today I pulled up my report and all three reports shot up to the mid 700's.

Applied for and was approved for CapOne Venture One $10000, ChaseAmazon $5000, Chase Freedom $7000

Just keep working hard and things do get better guys.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! It is good to know!! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information. And congrats!! Can you share more info about what your derogs were and what you did to help yourself? Or did you pay down debts and let the deroga age off?

[danny4l]

First, add a Discover it to the mix!  Was approved the next day for a $7500 limit.

My derogs were 180 day student loan late payments.  I had one 90 day late on a Chase card and a 30 day late on my auto loan.  My CC's had high balances but I never missed payments on the others.  I also had medical collections popping up here and there and I paid most of them in exchange for PFD.

This was August 2008 when I started to notice something was going very wrong with my debt.  Right when I was trying to fix things, I had a flare up of my chronic illness and went on disability...literally the worst-case scenario!

With my disability payments, I was paying off what I could and then I finally had surgery.  After my surgery in 2010, I got back to work and then after careful research, I enrolled in a credit counseling program because all my CC's had been closed at that point anyway.  I paid the full CC debts but with reduced interest rates.  Started that program in November 2011 and made the final payment July 2015.  Checked the score last friday and I was in the mid 700's across.

Things do get better but I have mixed feelings regarding student loan debts and medical debts and how they are allowed to impact your score.

[Anonymous]

Nicely done.  It's amazing what some hard work can accomplish.

[danny4l]

Yes, and I'll tell you that it is a very satisfying feeling.  For the longest time, I honestly thought my efforts were in vain but when I saw those CC approvals, I felts like a new person.  The irony is that I'm still the same person today that I was when I was in debt but somehow we have been led to believe that some arbitrary 3-digit number somehow can make one person "better" than another.