Thank you myfico users for all of the knowledge that I have gotten from here! I just wanted to post a timeline on my experience with rebuilding my credit that hope that it will serve as a motivation to those of you trying to rebuild your credit. It takes a lot of hard work and mainly a lot of patience and perseverance. But if you are consistent you WILL see results. I never thought the day would come that it would be me posting my success! Sorry for the long post!
01/2009-Found myfico and tried to rebuild but had too many late payments, CA and CO but I did not enough resources aka income to pay plus I had a lot of personal things going on. I tried to rebuild on and off till 2014 but like I said I didn’t have enough resources and maybe drive to really do what I had to do. Also life got in the way 
husband was unemployed for a year and we were living paycheck to paycheck with all available credit maxed out. In addition, we had a baby in 2013 who was born premature and was left in the hospital for months. He is healthy and strong now 
As you can imagine, the last thing on my mind was my credit cards being paid on time.
11/1/2014-Got laid off from my job after 6 years. I was given a 3 month severance package so I used my free time to apply for jobs but mainly embarked in the biggest credit journey of my life! Myfico signature does not do any justice to how low my scores were. In the summer of 2014, we wouldn’t even get approved for a cell phone put it that way. My husband and I both had scores in the high 400s to low 500s.
11/3/2014-Obtained copies of credit reports for my husband and I.
I had:
5 medical collections
4 parking ticket collections
2 judgments
2 BoA charge offs
150 late payments (YIKES!) Between 2 Honda Financial Accounts, 3 Capital One accounts, 1 Best Buy Account, 21 Navient Student Loan accounts, 5 Direct Student Loan accounts, 2 Wells fargo accounts, two PC Richard accounts, 1 Macys account)
Almost all my credit cards were closed due to outside credit score risk factors.
The only ones that remained were:
1 Macys account with $0 balance ($100 limit) 3 Capital One accounts with combined $1700 balance (Limits were $750, $750, & $300) 1 Best Buy MC with $300 limit
He had:
3 collections
20 late payments
1 old child support account from 2004 (21K in arrears)
11/4/2014-The hard work begins! I started by disputing some old accounts that should not be on file. I called EO offices to get GWs, wrote like 100 letters and sent to numerous places, called backdoor numbers like every day till someone was willing to help me. I contacted some CA and did PFDs. I filed two orders to show cause for my two medical judgments because I had moved and I was never served. I also paid down ALL of our credit card balance so that only 5% reports each month.
Good Wills Between 11/1/14-Now
- Got all medical collections removed for myself and DH. Credit score reflects this change.
- Disputed the parking collections because they were already paid and were all removed. Credit score reflects this change.
- Got one judgment vacated for myself but one remains on EQ and TU (going to court on 3/31 because my son had health insurance but the billing department never billed them) In addition, I was not served. I expect to get this vacated. Credit score reflects one judgment.
- Got Honda Financial to remove 4 30-day late payments out of 5 from 2012 from a closed account (one late remains-I will keep trying) for both my DH and myself and got them to remove a 30-day and a 60-day late payment from 2013 (account is now positive) from my current account. Credit score reflects this change.
- Got Capital One to remove 9 lates across 3 accounts. Still have like 4 left from 2012-2013. Credit score reflects this change. Also got them to remove the lates for my husband. Calling the EO office works!
- Got Macys to remove one late. Credit report was updated. Had 5 lates left. I called and pleaded for them to remove ALL lates kept getting no as answer. I also wrote letters. Someone along the way helped me. I checked my report yesterday and I am not showing any lates on EX and EQ for Macys hopefully TU changed too!
- Got PC Richard to remove ALL lates on two of my accounts (both closed) and they will be in a positive status soon. Still waiting for the changes to hit my credit report.
- Despite what some of you have said to me, I received the best call ever today from Navient! They are removing ALL of my 180 days lates on 21 accounts. That’s the equivalent of 84 lates!!! They’re from two years ago and the effects on my score isn’t as much right now. But every little bit helps! I wonder what kind of increase I will get!! I’m sooo happy this made my day today!
Credit score Updates:
11/30/14- signed up for the 3 bureau monitoring – our scores were actually much lower but this is the first time that I pulled the 3 bureau monitoring and by then we had already slightly improved our credit files
Me (I get updates like every other day so this is which the monthly overview)
07/1/14-high 400s across all
11/30/14 EQ 545 TU 573 EX 602
01/15/15 EQ 545 TU 586 EX 589
02/15/15 EQ 643 TU 627 EX 670
03/05/15 EQ 652 TU 690 EX 707
TODAY 3/12/14 EQ 670 TU 690 EX 718 (still waiting for 1. Removal of lates for 2 PC Richard Accounts which will put both accounts in positive status 2. Removal of 84 Navient lates, 1 judgement removal from TU and EX) Where do you think these updates will put me?
After the 2/15/15 update, I applied for the Chase Freedom and was approved with $500, applied for the Amex Green and was approved and that same day I applied for the Amex ED and approved for $5000. I literally cried when I was approved!!!! I will be asking for the 3X CLI soon J Also my Cap One accts were increased from $300 to $800 and 2 from $750 to $1750.
DH:
07/1/14: EQ 483 TU 505 EX 527
11/30/14 EQ 527 TU 566 EX 595
01/15/15 EQ 637 TU 606 EX 659
02/22/15 EQ 686 TU 656 EX 687
TODAY EQ 706 TU 721 EX 708 (WOOHOOOO!) still has 6 lates on report and a bloomingdales CO for $124 that I am fighting because we actually returned the item weeks later and they are not showing the return.
After the 2/22/15 update he applied for the Amex SPG and the ED and was approved for $2500 and for $1000. Not very high limits but it’s a start! Capital One also gave him a CLI from $300 to $800 ever since. He is in the credit steps which is due to end in April so he should see a nice bump then.
It was such a hard journey and I am still not done and I probably will never be done. I am officially OBSESSED with my credit! Around January, my EX score went down and I was so upset that I almost gave up! But I’m glad that I didn’t.
We are applying for a mortgage soon! Wish us luck
I will keep updating you guys as our scores continue to sky rocket! I wish you guys all the best on your credit building journey!! You can do it!!!! Feel free to ask me any question on who I contacted and what I said and so forth.
XOXO Love you ALL
Grats to all your success and good luck on the new home mortgage
Awesome story, very motivating! I hope my scores shoot up like yours
I could actually feel your emotions reading your story. OUTSTANDING JOB !! You did good and its paying off. And if you dont already feel good enough, think about all the inspiration and motivation you'll give to so many people (myself included) by taking the time as you did to type out your journey on here, Thank you and all the best to you and your family going forward.
NFCU Visa 30k | NFCU Platinum 30k | Cap1 QS 12K | Cap1 QS 11.5K | Barclay MC 9k | Delta Gold Amex 30K | Discover IT 14K | CFNA FS 3200 | CareCredit 20k| Paypal Credit 5k |
Awesome job, keep it going!
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.
Thank you everyone!! Hard work pays off Any ideas on how much my increase will increase once the CRA update my file with perfect payment history for my Navient accounts??