Why are you here?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about what brought you to this forum? What are your goals?

I'll go first. I'm here because I wrecked my credit in my twenties. I was never taught for to manage my finances. I am now in my thirties and am feeling the effects of having bad credit. I want to develop better financial habits so that I can purchase a home in the future.

[Shayenorwood]

I'm here for the same reason. Though my credit got wrecked from a divorce, got it back close to being good then I got hurt on my job and was out of work for two years. Started back up and was looking good and lost my job for two months. Just those two months of late payments an medical collection knocked me back down again. We found a house that we really want so we pulled our credit and started researching how to gain some points as quickly as possible.

[Anonymous]

I was careless with a couple of store cards as a very young adult, although the damage wasn't too bad. To prevent future issues, I decided I could live without credit completely. Which is possible to do, if you need to. Then, about 10 years later I had a daughter, and as an infant she was diagnosed with cancer. My carefully planned finances were then knocked right out of whack. I didn't care because I was so focused on her. To hell with the credit score...but the combination of medical bills I couldn't pay PLUS no positive credit really made a bad situation worse.

She's 10 now, and healthy. I'm nearly 38, and have spent most of 2012 starting my rebuilding journey. To be honest, before I got here I'd kind of given up. I figured we would just always be inherently financially unstable, that a home purchase was waaayyy out of my grasp, and that this was perhaps just part and parcel of being a single mom whose kid had the kind of medical history mine did. I'm still mulling over buying a home, (maybe I could eventually pull that off?) but for me the rebuilding hasn't just been about credit. It's also been about looking at the total financial picture, what my net worth looks like, whether I'm properly prepared with enough savings for emergencies. Am I looking for a good FICO score? Sure. But I also want a sense of stability. I want to feel like I'm on control of my finances, rather than the "snowball fight" approach, where you just constantly duck and weave to deal with whatever's flying at your face.

[User273165]

I was a stupid college kid and went ahead and ruined my credit not even thinking about it. I went through a love changing accident amd realized its time to get my life together. Unfortunately by that time I was 23 with a credit score in the low 500's.

Luckily I found this forum!!! Fast forward two years and im getting married, pre-approved for a mortgage loan and searching for houses.

2 years of letter writing and phone calls was well worth it!!

[beb86]

HAHA I read the post and was like hmm well its late and im doing what I always do at night.... I really don't know how I found this site but you better bet im glad I found it. Most of us are here for the same reasons and I think the are in this order,

1). Help- we are stuck and don't know where to go or what to do,

2) Education- once we realize the sky isn't falling we spend HOURS and HOURS combing this site learning everything we can and signing up to become a member (new visitor).

3) Share- relay the positive and negatives of our experiences in the hopes that you can find answers in your thread from the experiences of others

 ....and once we have found help learned what to do, DONE IT, KICKED BUTT, SHARED WHAT WE LEARNED, we do the most important thing we can do

4). Pay it back- complete the cycle and help point "new visitors", "members", "contributors", or really anyone who you can enlighten to answers or ideas the might have not otherwise seen.

[KnewBee]

Well I am here because IM kind of am idiot LOL! I ruined my credit in my early twenties too.  Thought I learned my lesson but flash forward to my late 30s. Housing market exploding. Everyone telling me I have to buy before I am priced out of market. Thought I was doing the right thing. Bought a very small older modest home for much less than I was approved for. Then the market tanks, IM way upside down and my adjustable rate and home owners association fee goes way up. Also income drops quite a bit due to economy. Having lived through bad credit once I never even think about defaulting again so hold on to my home as long as I can, but run up all my other credit in the process until I  simply no longer can pay everything. Then it all comes crashing down, foreclosure, chargeoffs, collections, etc. Move into my friends home and rent a room. Economy improves and my income goes way back up now, but now,in my early 40s my credit is so bad can't buy yesterday's newspaper with cash! Not to mention rent a decent apartment.    So come on here to learn how to improve it. I think that ultimately it is my fault for not being financially responsible. Im sure many would disagree with this, but while I take responsibility, I do get a little angry at the whole system too. I almost never actually applied for any credit I got inundated with pre-approved offers for everything from credit cards to mortgage to car loans. They don't tell you in the fine print that screwing up on them could put your job in jeopardy, cause you to be homeless and make you have to deal with sleazy collection practices. Again, I was the one who took out the credit so I ultimately take the responsibility, but I don't like how the whole system seems to be secretive somewhat misleading and will really nail people like me, who are not the most financially responsible, if that makes sense to folks. I am trying to clean up my mistakes but also committing myself to paying cash for everything and not getting stuck in credit hell again other than for things like mortgages or keeping some small credit cards to have a good mortgage credit score and be able to rent cars and book hotel rooms. Thank you for your question and thank you to anyone who read my whole long rant! Hopefully it makes sense to people and they can see where I am coming from. Not trying to blame the creditors, but I do think the system is stacked big time in their favor. Would love to see more education to people on the consequences of credit. More lender responsibility on the pre-approved offers, and more disclosures on how CRAs work and can control our lives. Those are the main reasons I am here, not trying to game the system, trying to learn from my mistakes, educate other people, and be responsible and debt free in the future. 

[Anonymous]

I totally agree Knewbee with much of what you said. I started this thread with the hope that those of us who might need to air out our feelings about our credit or the process will be able to .  I am a teacher and believe that the beginning in middle school we should be dedicating some time and energy to educating young people about money and credit and how it can effect their lives, how to maintain good financial practices. While my father had very sound financial practices, he rarely had the time to talk to me about how to do the same because he always worked at least two jobs. My mother also worked, but was not the best model of financial responsibility. She was doing the best she could with what she knew. I never received any education around finances in school and as a result I am learning now things that would have really would have benefitted me seventeen years ago. I, too, take responsibility, but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that it is all a part of the plan to keep people without the resources to learn about credit in a horrible cycle that makes other people rich off of late fees, high interest, etc. Money and credit are things where ignorance can be very costly and financially debilitating.

Thanks to everyone that has replied to this thread. If anyone else has any thoughts, or would like to share their story please feel free to keep posting!