I know you are all hard at work with your credit goals. Have you progressed as far as you hoped? Were there any unforseen expenses that popped up and may have thrown you off schedule?
As a reminder, participation in these monthly checkins is optional, but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here. This is a judgement free zone; feel free to say what's keeping you up at night or give yourself a kudo for having it all together.
Did you hit any potholes or speedbumps? Achieve some milestones, either small or mighty? Change your goals or add new ones?
Let us know how you're doing!
- Garden - I still have not returned to the garden.
- Increase CL on a few cards - Nothing new to report.
- Combine Cap 1 accounts - Nothing new to report.
- Reduce utilization - down to 10%.
- Reduce frivolous spending - I've made some progress in this department, but I'm still a WIP.
- Reduce inquiries - down 2 this month
July was a busy month for me: joined NFCU, reduced the APR from 13.99% to 10.24% on Commence credit card, and joined the Savings Playground - currently in the sandbox.
Stay positive & focused so we can meet our goals!!
Revisiting my 2017 goals:
1). To garden the cards I got last year post-BK, letting those tradelines age and grow. without opening any new tradelines. Entered garden again on 7/27/27, plan to stay in a minimum of 6 months, hopefully longer.
2). To continue to manage utilization and reported balances. Utilization is at 21% right now, and I want to bring that back down to <10%.
3). To watch my inquiries drop from EQ 6, TU 5, EX 8 down to EQ 3, TU4, EX 4 by June. I've added as many or more inquiries than fell off. Overall, they now sit at EQ 5, TU 7, EX 11, all within the last two years. All inquiries remaining are now post-BK.
4). To pay an extra $100/month on my highest balance and highest interest student loan, which is upside down due to interest accruing while in deferment (I know I should have paid it as I went, but the BK and events leading up to didn't allow for that). I still haven't done this, but the loan is now only $300 upside down. I really want to route that extra $100 now to get it down!
5). To continue saving about 10% of my gross income each month.Currently saving 12.7% of my income every month via direct deposit into a higher yield savings account.
Would still like to see one or more of my scores hit 700 by the end of the year at least. We'll see if pure gardening and paying down utilization and getting that loan above water will do the trick!
I'm new to the Challenge and just posted my intro in the intro thread.
Major accomplishments this week: Signature Cash Rewards ($7K after being initially declined because of new credit) AND Navcheck ($15K)
I just bought a car for my daughter for her birthday (also through NFCU) on July 4th so, I had several inquiries ding my file but, my score seems to be rebounding this month. I still need to buy myself a car (mine was recently totaled in an accident). I'm trying to hold on until next month to see what my credit score does or maybe buy something inexpensive from a local dealer's auction (a friend has access, not me).
I expect my only derog to fall off this month and, other than the multiple inquiries and short length of history, my report will be clean.
I plan to stop using all other cards and only use my Signature Cash Rewards card for my monthly expenses and PIF monthly. I'm excited!!
O.M.G. Shortly after posting ^^, I received an alert from myfico. My TU score jumped 25 pts to 722!!! 
Yay!!!!
I havent updated since around March or April so, I decided to update my rebuilding progress. My scores are rebounding so awesome and I may hit my goal of 700 by the end of the year! I paid off my 2 charge offs (settled both), one in April and the other in June. My one judgement that was reporting on all 3 CA's has been deleted although it was paid as well (it was deleted with the July 1 credit updates). I was also able to get an old collection deleted and a new one popped up around May but I was able to get that one deleted as well, I now have 0 collections or judgements.
I wasn't applying for any new credit until my debts were paid. So as of the last week of July I decided to apply for a few new accounts because I had quite a few of inq's falling off. I went to the Amex preapproval site and it showed that I was preapproved for 3 cards. I decided to take a chance. (New FICO scores are updated)
New cards I added: (July 31- August 3)
Amex PRG
Amex BCE $1,000
Amex Delta Skymiles $1,000
Care Credit $8,600
NFCU Cash Rewards $14,000
I will be closing Credit one soon and merging my Cap one Plat with my Quicksilver after September 21 when it becomes a year old.
Credit one $1350 - $0 balance
NYC CC $2500 - $0 balance
Macys $7800- $223 balance
Marathon Gas $2350 - $0 balance
Victoria's secret $3000 - $267 balance
USF CU $1000 - $40 balance
Cap 1 QS $9250 - $7700 balance
Jewelers Club $5000 - $0 balance
Cap 1 plat $1100 - $0 balance
Merrick $700- $0 balance
Total CL= $58,650
Even though I wasnt posting here I was deligently working towards my goals. It seemed some months as though things werent moving fast enough but when my reports started updating my scores rebounded quite nicely! I will be gardening my new accounts for quite some time and paying down my current debt throughout the end of the year.
Score: F8 EQ 609, EX 597, TU 614 (1/17) Current Score: F8 EQ 701, EX 714, TU 689 (12/18)
@Anonymous wrote:Newby here. I appreciate everyone who contributes to this forum. Being part of such a thoughtful community will no doubt assist me in my credit card journey.
So just starting to grow, as I have been acumlulating the cards that best suit my lifestyle the past few months.
One of my biggest challenges is that I am super protective of the credit that I DO have, which in comparison to some of you folks, isn't really all that much. My wife, on the other hand, has no real concept of living in a plastic society (she is from Philippines), so I have to be "the responsible one" for the both of us.
Anyhow, I am positioning my credit strategy towards "higher than average" domestic leisure air travel and some light Int'l travel to hit my million mile mark in the next 7 years (halfway there).
my credit card overview....
AMEX Delta Gold - 1K
AMEX Hilton Honors - 1K
Cap One QS - 4K
Cap One QS1 - 3K
Chase Freedom Unl - 4.5K
Disco Cash - 2K
PNC Cash Rew - 2K
I've attained a good mix of cards here (for me personally) to allow me to address gas, groceries, restaurants at higher that a 1.5% cashback rate.
My BIG three cards are PNC, Discover & Freedom Unl for addressing: Gas 4%, Restaurant this quarter 5%, grocery 2%
The QS I keep in drawer (this was an upgrade from a Cap One Plat card)
The QS1 I utilize as a secondary & internet purchases card so I don't carry it around with me.
The AMEX Delta Gold - I am most of the way to hitting the minimum for the 60K Skymiles bonus.
The AMEX Hilton Honors - 50K points bonus for 1K spent in first three months (will be focusing on this heavily as well as the Delta card
Looking forward to seeing many tips on credit disicpline and helping to motivate others who are in the same boat as me.
I also plan on being quite the cheerleader and supporter of those that have decided, like myself, "to put all the turds on the table".
Snootypoodle
Welcome to myFICO & Fitness Challenge!!! Iyour name. Good luck on your credit journey!