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You can do it!

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saltlakere
Valued Member

You can do it!

A year ago my Fico scores were in the low to mid 500s. My car was repo'd in 2014 so I didn't have a car. I had no credit cards. I had two small judgments, collections and late pays on the car.

 

Today my scores are in the mid 600s with TU at 707. I have 0 judgments, 4 credit cards and an auto loan for 3.59% from my credit union. Just tonight, I was approved for an Amex BCE. I only have 1 baddie remaining on each bureau.

 

You're probably wondering how, right?

 

A lot of info came from these boards over the years. A lot of it came from being in mortgage lending. I have tried to do things on my own in the past and was successful to a certain degree. Lexington Law helped get rid of a bunch of things this go around but they ended up having tradelines completely deleted which meant I didn't have enough good credit reporting. I wound up getting the judgments removed by disputing them directly with the bureau they were reporting on. 

 

In the past I had been an authorized user on an Amex and Home Depot account. Even though I'm no longer on those, that good history still shows up. It helps my average age of accounts and utilization. At this time last year, I was added to another Home Depot account that reports well and has an $8k limit. When I started getting serious about fixing my credit, I realized I needed more current accounts reporting. In September I got a Cap1 QS1 with a $300 limit. I used it and paid it frequently. Utilization never went over 10%. My scores rose to the mid 500s and then high 500s. TU doesn't report the repo so it moved to the low 600s. But the judgments were on that bureau. As the QS1 aged, my TU increased to the high 600s. I got the judgments removed and it dropped a bit. I figured I'd been re-bucketed.

With a 680 TU, I applied for a Barclay account. It was rejected. Because of the info here, I reconned it and got approved for $250. I was on credit steps for the QS1 and requested an increase after 90 days. Got $100 more. Whoohoo! In September I bought a used car using my girlfriends credit on a personal loan. I was making payments that weren't helping me, but I did have a car. I knew I needed another tradeline. As my other scores jumped over 620, I applied for a Chase card, Target card and Discover card. Denied for all three on the initial app and the recon. The scores they were pulling were lower than what Fico was reporting. That was frustrating.

In December I went into my credit union to see if I could refinance that car into my name and possibly get a credit card. My EX was the lowest and was sitting at 625. The credit union only pulled EX. So I had them pull it and their version pulled up a 690! So I refi'd the car into my name only, paid off the personal loan and got a 3.59% rate. I also got a Visa card with a $1,000 limit and an 8.9% rate. It has a cash back rewards component too. Yay!

 

February rolls around and my scores are in the mid 600s and my TU is over 700. I got a pre-approved offer from Cap1 for their GM rewards card. I applied before I realized the rewards sucked but I wanted the trade line and open to buy to give me some breathing room on the low limits for the other cards. $500. I apped another local bank because they have an interesting mortgage loan product for rehabbing homes and I wanted to establish a credit relationship with them. Sure enough, they had the higher scores like my credit union, but it was denied at a 690. 

 

I don't have a lot of inquiries but still checked pre-qual sites. Nothing. For months, nothing. I kept paying my cards. I moved all my personal spend to the credit union card because its rewards are better than the QS1. I used that for business incidentals. I made a car payment every paycheck and built up my savings. The baddie that appears on each report gets older with every passing month and becomes less important. I applied for a CLI for Barclay after 5 months. Denied. My EX moved to 667.

 

Then two weeks ago I got two hits on the Amex pre-qual site. I've put it off because I was worried about my AAoA. CCT says its five years. One more account couldn't hurt, right? Approved. I think I'm done.

4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: You can do it!

Congrats on your growth.

 

Now stay in the garden for a minimum of 6 months and best is 12 months.

 

Let everything age so you you won't stay in baby limit hell forever.

Message 2 of 5
chubbs3
New Contributor

Re: You can do it!

Thanks for sharing and congrats on your rebuilding success! Very inspirational.

Message 3 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: You can do it!

Good post.  Now its 12 months of garden time

Message 4 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: You can do it!

Hi saltlakere congrats on your credit rebuild journey & your AMEX approval nice job! 😊
Message 5 of 5
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