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In college I decided that I wanted to seeThe World, and I did it on my credit cards. I graduated 6 years ago with 3 completely maxed out credit cards ($16,000 total) and a $23,000 car loan. I made the minimum payments on all of it for 4 years while I continued to live the high life on my new salary. I had my reality check when I decided I wanted to buy a house. I had never made a late payment so I figured my score would be pretty good but my score was 619 due to high utilization. The lender suggested I take action and pay down my debt before jumping into a mortgage.
I set up an incredibly strict budget and paid down all 3 cards to less than 50% of their original balances in less than a year months. That gave my score a nice bump up to 680. I took the remaining credit card balances and rolled them into a term loan ($8,000 balance) and I saw my score take another nice jump up to 720. I now had $0 credit card debt but still needed to tackle my new term loan. I paid off the term loan in October of 2013 and decided now that my debt is under control I was ready to apply for a mortgage. The lender pulled my score in November 2013 and it was 753! Wooohoo!! Since then, I found my dream home, my new high credit score made the underwriting process so easy, and I am happy to report that I will be closing on my first home next week Wednesday. My goal for 2014 is to tackle the remainder of my car loan (still has a $5,000 balance) and have no debt except for the mortgage. I would also like to save up enough cash to put a deck on my new house. :-)
Your FICO® score has gone up to 656 on January 17, 2014. |
Happy New Year, everyone!
I never really knew much about credit or personal finance. My parents didn't teach me anything about money, budgeting, saving, investing or credit. Like so many others, I had my first experience with credit in college, when Discover gave me a $2000 limit. I maxed it out within months and had no means of repaying it. During that time, I had plenty of other credit cards, none of which I was able to repay. Those days are long gone and those items have long since been removed from my credit report. Since then, I've had judgments, liens, student loan defaults, repossessions, garnishments and more. I will turn 40 next year and I do not want to go into my 40s with bad credit and still renting a home.
I filed bankruptcy in 2005 and look forward to it falling off my credit report in May 2015. My ultimate goal is to reach a 720+ across the board when the BK7 falls off.
My goals:
Best wishes to all of you who are embarking on this journey!
Hello everyone!!!
I am new to this forum this year, but not new to trying to get my credit in order!! Started around 10-2011, had many duplicates removed and disputes added!! UGHHHH!! Removing disputes wreak havoc on your scores!! But glad they are gone. Have 6 more baddies to contend with (all are old). Two come off in August, need to PFD on two and produce GW for the other two!! Hopefully all will go well.
Looking to get a mortgage loan (either FHA or USDA) as soon as I can and move forward on my journey!!!
I goal for this year is to never be turned down for anything again! And to begin investing in real estate with the help of better scores!
Hello everyone!
I'm ready to take charge of my financial life once again and rebuild my credit. Back in 2011, everything went down hill because of major health problems and I end up with huge medical bills, loss of my job and as a consequence lost my 3 credit cards . I basically, had to move out of state and start all over again. I am finally getting back on my feet and started paying off some bills on September/2013. As of right now, I have 8 medical collections in my CR and 3 collections from the credit cards. I am current on payment plans with all the accounts and trying to pay off as a debit snowball plan as fast as I can. This January/2014, I was able to get a secured credit card from capital one and paid off 1 medical collection bill. It was a small win but I am super excited! No changes on my CR yet. My plan is to get my credit in a great place where I can get a car loan (need a better car soon) and hopefully buy my first home in the next 3-5 years.
I plan on working hard to pay off all my debts, improve my credit, finish school, saving/investing and buying a car and a home.
my current credit is EX 568. EQ 572. TU 572
my Goal to Dec/2014 is 650
my long Term Goal is 750+
Hi everyone! I always had been bothered by my bad credit, in fact, I was so ashamed that I didn't even want to check my scores. Since my husband and I want to buy a house in '14 (or early '15) and we'll be using my credit scores (since he has a 790!) I decided I needed to bite the bullet and check everything out. The LO we're working with was not horrified, she said that I need to get it up, but that our financials are great and it shouldn't be hard to clean it up. This is where I was at last week when I started this journey: Ex: 568, Eq: 561, TU: 553. Now I'm at Ex: 568, Eq: 588, TU: 560. So something good is happening!
My goals this year:
Get my scores up to the 640 range in 2014
Have a good enough score to be able to open an Amazon card to increase my available credit
Achieve goodwill/PFD success with the 2 baddies on my reports.
Good luck to everyone!
Hello!
After losing my job and having to file bankruptcy, I am back on my feet and trying to fix the mess I have on my hands.
Trying to rebuild my credit and am reading up on best ways to do that.
Got a Cap One Secured CC and my score has gone up almost 30 pts in 1 month.
Hoping I can get my good credit back in a few years.
Just checking this worked haha
I have started this Journey not just for myself but for my family. Growing up I didn't realize the importance of credit so I didn't take care of it. By the time I realized it is one of the most important things financially I felt it was to late to do anything about it. The most important thing to me is my family, I am 35 years old and have just graduated from college to better support my family and now its time to repair and build my credit. My goals for this year consist of paying off all debt that is not falling off my report over the next year, get as many pfd;s as possible, keeping current credit card under 10% of max and of course pay bills on time. By the end of 2014 I hope to see my score at 650 across the board, possible? I don't know but Ill give it the old college try