Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge 2015

[tallin32]

Greetings!

I'm about eight months into rebuilding.  My wife and I needed to file for Chapter 7 after a $34,000 medical debt ended up being the srraw that broke the camel's back (Did I say "straw"?  I think I may have possibly meant "five hundred pound load").  Bankruptcy was discharged in May of last year.  This year I'm hoping to raise my scores and perhaps have more of my cards not be for "people with bad or rebuilding credit".  Whilst owning a home would be nice, my requirements (near as much public transport as possible) sort of put that out of my price range (Seattle is an expensive city), so I'm totally not expecting to be able to be approved for the sort of mortgage I'd need for that this year.

[New_Beginning]

Happy New Year everyone! I have been MIA for a bit, the middle part 2014 (dad diagnosed with cancer) and this year has started out with a lot of personal things (lost my grandmother)  but I am still participating in the fitness challenge and now getting back focused. Have to get my credit reports ordered and go from there. I been checking in on my scores to make sure things have get moving up and not down, hadn't updated my siggy yet but once the dust settle I will be back in full swing! Good luck everyone on your credit fitness journey!!!! 2015 I hope to get much closer into entering the 700 club 

[Anonymous]

I am excited about taking the MyFico fitness challenge.  Over the past 10 years (previous two years excluded) i have not been totally responsible with my credit.  I believed that very good credit was far out of reach due to past mistakes.  Over the last year I have had several collections, one tax lien, and two charged off accounts removed from my credit file.  I have also maintained a good payment history over the last 24 months.  I have one stubborn student loan which reported 120+ days late over 9 times while I thought it was in deferment, and a few slow pays on an auto loan a few years back.  My goal is to achieve a minimum score of 740...and I'm excited about getting there. I currently have one credit card 3 years old (Capital One) One installment loan..One Car loan, and several deferred student loans.   I've been reading comments on this board for the last few months..and finally decided to register and get involved....Good Luck to All

[Anonymous]

I would like to build my credit after some poor financial mistakes

[cartwrna]

I'm making leaps already! Not big ones but leaps! Just paid down some of my credit cards so waiting for that to report, hopefully gain some points there. 700 is within reach

[Anonymous]

Count me in! Would like to work toward 760's or higher across the board by the end of 2015. Hoping to get a nice SL for Ink Cash in May (if approved) also would like credit profile to look its best for potential auto loan next year. No lates or baddies to work on, plan to continue paying on time and keep util under 10%. Will update signature as soon as I figure out how to fit everything together without it looking a mess.

Good luck to all!

[arn0822]

New Challenger:

I am rebuilding my credit post divorce several years ago.  For a while I simply did nothing.  Now, I am about to marry (this weekend actually) and I am looking to rebuild my credit in preparation for my husband  and I to purchase a home.  My husband has no active credit  which I hope to work on.  He is a widow of 12 years and since the death of his wife he has paid cash for everything.  

Current Situation on 1/14/2015:

EQ: 642

TU: 640

EX: 634

Goal : 680 

[Jon123]

Hello,

So My story begins 3 years ago, my wife and I had literally never cared about our credit scores and credit at all. We bought our cars from buy-here/pay-here places and prayed 20% interest, we didn’t care, then we bought a car from a regular dealership and it got repo’d. then in 2008 I lost my job and my wife was cut back to 32 hours a week, all forms of our credit tanked at that point, then 3 1/3 years ago we tried to buy a car, found out that a credit score of (445-myself—456 my wife) was not going to get you financed  from anybody,  

So we decided to get into credit fitness, we pulled our reports from Experian(17 derogs and 5K in negative debt for me-14 derog’s and 5.5K in bad debt for my wife + the repo for each of us,  , found this site and sat down to discuss a plan, we settled on the slash and burn method, first thing we did was challenge everything, this method cut 3 negs from mine and 2 negs from the wife’s, then we lines everything up by age and amount owed,  I had 4 items under $100 so I called each and they all agreed to a full delete if I paid them off- I did and they did. We did this with 3 items for my wife as well, then we looked at what had 2 or less years until drop off, ignored those, of the ones that had 5 years or more of life we called them to ask about a settlement with full deletes, some would and we settled with them and it was deleted, (one mislead us) and did not delete.

We did this is the first year, scores up to 580 and 600, (the repo fell off both reports)

Got a secured loan from our bank for 2K, to begin establishing some kind of credit history, at this point my outstanding bad debt was $1,100 and wife’s was $1,200.

We then sat for another year to allow our foundation to settle, in that time we both had 2 bad debts fall off record leaving me with $600 that was paid with a bonus from work and my wife down to $800,

This summer my fico score jumped to 649 when all the bad debt was paid, with that I did the famous app spree, got approved for Discover,$1500, Capital one $750, Capital one $500, Barclays $1000, then I added my wife as a approved user so they would all list on her report to assist with her score, it did, jumped her fico score to 645., then we talked with our bank and bought a good car (20K @ 4.9% rate)

It has been almost 3 years and we just applied for Barclays again, we each got approved independently for $4000, and added each other as approved users. I have just 1 charge off left that is due to fall off in March 2015 and my with has 2 charge offs that will fall off in March 2015 and the last in July 2015, then we should be Clean, J

Current Fico score from our credit union, mine 677- wife’s 664 zero bad debt for both of us, and then the CU OFFERED us a mortgage at 4.5 interest rate, $225K, I guess they watched our progress

[bdhu2001]

Hey.  Glad to be back.  I met, and exceeded my goals last year. This year I'm gardening and keeping my credit clean.

In addition, I'm saving, paying extra on my house payment, and keeping my utilization below 15%.  I'm endeavoring to PIF each month and to not charge more than I can pay off.

I'm continuing in this year's challenge.  I did the January 2015 check in, but didn't sign into the 2015 challenge. I'm in and hoping for the best!!!

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone,

I am so excited that I found this site. I discover MYFICO  back in December and have been lurking on the boards and learning a lot of things. This site have really opened my eyes a lot to how credit works. I really went through a rough couple of years and screw my credit up.

Currently the home that my family and I are living in is rented and the landlord is not going to renew the lease, because his daughter is going through a rough divorce and need to come back to live in the home. We have roughly 5-6 months more in the home. The area we live in do not have a big inventory of home to rent so we are looking at purchasing a home.

My husband and I are trying to get our scores up to be able to purchase in the next few months

Steps Taken:  

Since:  10/14 did secure some starting credit lines to have a rebuild base:

 2 - CapOne  secured $200cl

 3 - CapOne Platinum $300cl

 4 – Kohls $300 CL

Most of the items on my credit is Student loans, I do have 1 Judgment that is in dispute, 2 Collections also in dispute. I will update with exact information.

I will take any help and suggestions to help with meet my goal.