just a quick happy dance and thank you to fico.com

[tavalon]

I boke 700 on all of my credit scores. It took hard work, close attention and work on my credit report, learning the utiiization game, etc, but it worked for me. As of this time last year, I had one card ar $300 and a strict cash and carry rule. I now have 8 cards with over 10, 000 CL. I still follow cash and carry ( credit isn't free money), I just pay differently. 

I've had a few turn downs but plenty of acceptance and my mailbox is full of pre approved offers. I open them for fun, but I'm in the garden. I have acieved everthing I want. If a really sweet offer comes along, I might bite but probably not.

The other site with the Fakos was helpful but this one was invaluable. I highly recommend reading the many useful posts from the experts here!

,

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! Nice improvement in just a year!

Do you mind sharing your starting scores? Did you improve upon them much? It is always encouraging seeing everyone's progress! I just got a delete on my husband's report and then opened a new card and his transunion went up 123 points in less than a month, so that really made me hopeful for my own person progress. I don't have much debt besides student loans, but had a few late payments that have really brought my scores down when I took a significant pay cut last year. Just got a promotion and back to my old income so it feels good!

Congrats again!

[Anonymous]

Yes please tell us details thx for sharing I would love to get. A huge boost

[fwill5rn]

Congrats to you!!!!   Thanks for encouragement! !

[tavalon]

I was in the mid 500s except for experian which was stangley over 100 points higher. I never figured that out but they dropped me by about 50 and then they all started going up so they are pretty even.

I'm gardening now as I don't have any other cards I want.

Just keep trucking. Pay down your cards, fix the credit report which in my case was very incorrect. Even dispute those things you know to be true. And don't do one thing - check you scores all the time. I did and it was a big waste of money. I don't want to sound like an advertisement now, but myfico has a new product that should get rid of any OCD need to check all the time. The three score and daily watch system. I think they are launching it this month. As well, most cards now give you your score, but they don't give you the extra information you need to have a full picture - the credit report.

I also employed some tricks I learned here, like applying for multiple cards on one day. Checking to see which CU companies usually pull from. Keeping my utilization under 30%. It's weird, I have a discover with a 0% until next year so it made sense to have a higher utility but I was plugging along until I realized that it doesn't frigging matter anymore. So, the money I was pushing at Discover is now going to the small balances I still have on interest bearing accounts. I will zap Discover at the beginning of the year so it will be paid off before interest accrues. I accrued interest of about $10 last year because I wasn't paying as closte attention to closing dates.

I really didn't understand any of this when I started. I knew I had screwed up as a twenty something and wasn't going to make that mistake again. Cash and carry. But cash and carry isn't the game that will open the financial keys to the kingdom. This isn't free money - that's the biggest thing I learned. Well, not completely - I choose cards with the highest cash back. That's free money if I'm buying the item anyway.

Speaking of which, I use cards for everything, groceries included and then pay them off.

[Anonymous]

That 123 point increase was a combination of my husband opening a new credit card and having an old credit card that we settled on awhile back. We paid it off for less than the full amount and it was reporting as not paid and it made it look like we still owed a $8500 balance. I disputed it and they just deleted. He now has a middle score of 769. Crazy!

[Creditwiser]

Good job with your progress. Feels good doesnt it !   You're going in the right direction and soon enough, you'll hit the goal.

[joedtx]

Wow.......you have 123 reasons to celebrate!